Number of youth sent to Stanislaus juvenile hall has plummeted since 2008. What happened?

Stanislaus County has seen a dramatic drop in juvenile booking rates, reflecting broader statewide trends in juvenile justice reform.

Over the past 15 years, the number of bookings at the county’s juvenile facilities decreased by 71%. Booking means processing a suspect into the criminal justice system after an arrest.

“The downward trajectory of youth bookings locally mirrors what has been occurring throughout the state. Law changes, greater investments in the juvenile justice space, and prevention efforts all likely [have] played a role in the significant decrease in bookings over the years,” said Mark Ferriera, the county’s chief probation officer.

“This, in our opinion, should be celebrated. Fewer youth who enter our juvenile justice system means less victims and a safer community.”

Much of this reduction can be attributed to state-level legislation including Senate Bill 81, which in 2007 limited the types of offenders who could be sent to state-run juvenile facilities, placing more responsibility on local systems.

This shift laid the groundwork for counties to take on even more responsibility when the state closed the Division of Juvenile Justice last year. With DJJ’s closure, counties are now fully responsible for housing and rehabilitating serious offenders through programming .

Some educational and vocational programs include college courses through Modesto Junior College, culinary and truck driving programs through the Stanislaus County Office of Education and a construction program through Northern California Construction Training.

“With these continued local investments, we are confident that we will see similar successes with reducing our number of incarcerated youth,” Ferriera said.

Since the opening of the county’s Juvenile Commitment Facility in 2013, the average daily population in the institutions dropped by about 50%. The JCF houses youth who have been court-ordered to serve a designated period in custody as part of their sentence. The facility also provides a more rehabilitative environment for youth committed for longer periods.

Compared to nearby counties Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Merced, Stanislaus County saw the smallest reduction in the average daily population at its juvenile facilities, with a 54.6% decrease, dropping from 132 in 2008 to 60 in 2023. This rate also lags behind the statewide trend, where California experienced a 74.5% decrease during the same period.

Persistent racial disparities

Though bookings have decreased, data shows that Black youth continue to be detained at rates higher than their representation of the population.

While Hispanic youth made up on average 57% of those booked between 2008 and 2023 — consistent with county demographics — Black youth were overrepresented at more than four times their proportion of the population.

This overrepresentation is not unique to Stanislaus County. Studies have shown that Black youth are disproportionately detained, both state and nationwide.

White juveniles were slightly underrepresented in booking rates, compared to their population size.

The Stanislaus County Probation Department has worked to address these disparities through evidence-based practices like the Detention Risk Assessment Instrument and the Juvenile Assessment and Intervention System, which are designed to reduce bias in detention decisions, according to a 2019 report .

The DRAI measures “the degree of public safety risk posed by the youth if they are released,” the report says. The JAIS, too, measures public safety risk but also “the strengths and needs of the youth and recommends effective supervision strategies. The goal is to lessen time youth are on supervision and reduce recidivism.”

Offense trend shifts

From 2008 to 2019, bookings for violent offenses dropped by 58%, while serious offenses saw a 31% reduction and property offenses fell by 51%. Bookings for charges under section 707(b) of the Welfare and Institutions Code also decreased by 52% during this period. Those crimes include murder, arson, robbery and forcible rape .

The report attributes some of these changes to key legislative reforms, including Propositions 47 and 57.

Proposition 47, passed in 2014, reclassified certain theft and drug-related offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, leading to fewer bookings for lower-level offenses. Proposition 57, enacted in 2017, ended the ability of prosecutors to directly file charges against juveniles in adult court, further reducing the number of youth being held for serious offenses.

Now, the juvenile court must hold a hearing to decide if a transfer to adult court is appropriate.

The report also noted that a portion of the youth population is repeatedly booked for offenses. In 2019, 29% of the youth booked for violent offenses had multiple bookings, and 19.5% of all youth booked into Juvenile Hall that year had been booked more than once.