A new Santa Barbara County Grand Jury report is giving high marks to the success rate of a camp for male juvenile offenders operated by the county, and says it could be expanded to do even more.
The report says the county’s Los Prietos Boys Camp is not only more effective that juvenile halls from keep teenage boys from becoming repeat offenders, it does it at a lower cost.
The facility in the mountains about 20 miles northwest of Santa Barbara has been in operation since 1944, and offers drug treatment, educational, and other programs. Medium to high risk offenders spend between 120 and 180 days at the camp. The Grand Jury says that while the camp is currently staffed for 50 teens, it only averaged about 37 a day in 2015.
The report says more teens should be put into what it praises as an effective and well run program. It also suggests that the camp could be expanded to provide services for female teenage juvenile offenders. The report says while the county doesn’t always have enough girls in the system female to justify the cost, it suggests that making spaces available to neighboring counties could help subsidize the expansion.