County’s board to evaluate $3.3 million program to rehabilitate
youth offenders
MORGAN HILL
An ongoing redesign of the William F. James Boys Ranch aims to rebrand the Morgan Hill facility for juvenile offenders “from correctional to a more therapeutic model,” a ranch official said Wednesday.
The overhaul began in August 2006 with an implementation of a new program to treat the offenders, said manager Mike Sims. The program was outlined in the Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commission’s Inspection Report in February 2007.
In place of the “behavioral modification,” the new “cognitive behavioral treatment program” requires smaller living quarters and stresses additional education to rehabilitate the offenders.
“The cognitive model focuses on trying to change the way youthful offenders think and not just the way they act,” according to the report.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to review the program sometime next month, said Supervisor Don Gage.
The ranch is one of Santa Clara County’s three juvenile halls, and its residents are boys ages 15 to 18 who are ordered held in custody by the courts. The facility, which currently houses 60 boys, is located at 19050 Malaguerra Ave., in northwest Morgan Hill.
The county probation department facility came under fire in 2005 as residents of the neighborhood complained about the number of escapes from the facility and raised concerns about safety. Santa Clara county Supervisor Don Gage and Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming organized a series of community meetings to discuss the problem and it has been addressed, Sims said.
A fence keeps the boys at bay as escapes have “dropped to a handful,” Sims said.
“There’s a lot of good things that have happened as result of the fence, although it cages them in,” Gage said.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department helps patrol the area around the clock as well, he said.
A library has been added to the facility. The ranch’s main dormitory, where up to 96 youth offenders could sleep before, was subdivided into five smaller bedrooms or “pods,” with 12 people in each, Sims said. The ranch’s 32 staff counselors are assigned to each of the pods and at the rate of 6 to 1, the staffing exceeds recommended levels, he added.
The county-funded ranch was granted $3.3 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year budget to implement the new program, including facility redesign and staff hiring and training, Sims said. As they look to make permanent modifications to the dorm, ranch officials added office cubicle-style walls to create the pods more home-like and conducive to the new program.
“The staff that are working with the kids are working with those kids only,” Sims said, adding they are looking at not only behavior but “how they’re thinking” in “trying to impact them differently.”
Hallways at the facility have been “softened” and landscaping done to make it appear less like a jail or a prison, he said.
Under the new program, the length of the stay for most offenders increased from four-to-five to six-to-eight months, which most of the offenders and their parents think is too long, according to the report.
The county’s Juvenile Hall Advisory Board, which was scheduled to hear a report on the facility Wednesday afternoon, will be updated on the changes when it meets at 5 p.m. Feb. 6 at the board of supervisors’ chambers, 70 W. Hedding St., San Jose.
A phone message left for the Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commission seeking comment on the program’s implementation was not immediately returned.
