LA County Supervisors vote to create juvenile probation camps in Malibu, Santa Clarita, Commerce

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is moving forward on creating three juvenile probation camps in Malibu, Santa Clarita, and Commerce over outrage from those communities.

The proposal approved 4-1 Tuesday would house and provide rehabilitative services to juvenile offenders at the three "Secure Youth Track Facilities" for offenders who would have previously been sent to state youth prisons. The state is closing its youth prisons next year and sending its offenders to individual counties for housing.

The supervisors had rejected a proposal to convert a troubled youth hall in Sylmar into a centralized facility. Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Sheila Kuehl instead recommended that male offenders be housed at Camp Kilpatrick in Malibu and Camp Scott in Santa Clarita, with female offenders held at Camp Kirby in Commerce.

"The current systems of incarceration only perpetuate the harms they experienced because they are foundationally built out of punishment and isolation,'' they wrote. "In creating an alternative model that comports with Youth Justice Reimagined, we can work towards ending system involvement for these youth.''

The facilities proposed and approved by the supervisors are aimed at focusing on treatment, education, and re-entry programs to help rehabilitate youth offenders. However, the plan has faced significant opposition from the community, particularly in Santa Clarita, where city officials say the currently vacant Camp Scott is dilapidated and in need of extensive upgrades in order to house youth offenders.

(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)