Page 3 - Probation Today - New Layout 2018_FINAL

Santa Barbara Juvenile Trends

by Research & Special Projects Manager Karyn Milligan

The Juvenile Division launched a data mining project to explore Santa Barbara County 33rd Annual Probation
juvenile trends in contrast with comparable California counties. Staff also reviewed each
file to explore drivers of our local Santa Barbara trends that otherwise could not be pulled Department Staff
automatically from the case management system . A summary of the project findings in- Recognition Dinner
clude:
On March 9th, Chief Tanja Heit-
 Juvenile arrests statewide continue to trend down while Santa Barbara county have man kicked off the Santa Barbara
trended up since 2015. County Probation Department’s 33rd
Annual Staff Recognition Dinner at the
 Comparison counties have substantially less youth under probation supervision. Santa Ynez Valley Marriot. Honoring
probation staff for their accomplish-
 Santa Barbara has a much higher rate of youth under Court wardship for misdemean- ments in 2017.
or offenses.
Award recipients included: Support
Staff of the Year: Santa Maria Admin-
 Utilization of juvenile institutions statewide continues to trend down. The Santa
istrative Office Professional Nancy
Barbara custody population has been substantially higher than comparison counties.
Valdez, Santa Barbara AOP II Vanessa
Diffenderfer, and Lompoc AOP
 Santa Barbara has higher rates of youth in group home placements than comparison
Roseanna Rojo; Institutions Staff of
counties.
the Year: Los Prietos Boys Camp Cook
Yoshi Sim and Santa Maria Juvenile
Current and future strategies to positively impact the trends have also been explored.
Hall Deputy Probation Officer, Senior
These include the following:
Sonja Alcantar; Deputy Probation
Current Strategies: Officer of the Year: SM DPO Sr., Shan-
non Harris, SB DPO Sr., Veronica
 Selecting an assessment tool that consistently and reliably measures risk of re-offense Santana, and Lompoc DPO Shane Lari-
and assesses criminogenic needs including a youth’s and family’s strengths and ba; Supervisor of the Year: SMJH Su-
protective factors. pervising Probation Officer, Alejandra
Ochoa; Bulldog Award: All staff sworn
 Utilizing diversion opportunities on low and medium risk youth to ensure they receive and non-sworn assigned to the Santa
appropriate interventions. Maria Juvenile Hall; Star Award:
Manager of Research & Special Pro-
 Determining if interventions are evidence-based and effectively address criminogenic jects Karyn Milligan; Chief’s Award:
needs while building on strengths and protective factors.
SM AOP Sr., Patti Stadler. In addition,
Second District Supervisor, Janet Wolf,
 Limiting low and medium risk youth exposure to higher risk youth or intensive inter-
ventions that may negatively impact their protective factors. was recognized for her years of sup-
port and was presented with a wood-
 Improving internal and collaborative court processes. en tray hand-crafted by the youth at
Los Prietos Boys camp.
 Developing an inventory of local programs utilized by justice-involved youth.
Members of
the Board of
Future Strategies:
Supervisors
also present-
 Maximize potential success of interventions through the use of a Risk-Needs-
ed service
Responsivity model of supervision that increases the use of incentives and limits the
pins to those
use of incarceration.
employees
 Create and/or leverage existing data and management systems to better assesses with 20, 25
outcomes. and 30 years
of county
 Provide training to internal and external staff and stakeholders regarding innovative service.
approaches and latest research and evidence based strategies.

“Leading the Way to a Safer Community”