‘Disturbing,’ ‘disappointing’: Juvenile justice oversight is diminishing across California, to advocates’ alarm

Three years ago, members of the civilian board that monitors the Santa Cruz County juvenile hall sought to eliminate potential conflicts of interest by moving the commission from underneath the court and its probation department to the county’s chief administrative office.

We were getting less and less administrative support,” said the Rev. Beverly Brook, a jailhouse minister from Santa Cruz and longtime member of the local Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission.

But the county didn’t address the potential conflict, Brook said. “We just got a no.”

In June in Mendocino County, the civilian board that provided oversight of the juvenile court and detention facility there was disbanded .

Too many members of that county’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission failed to attend meetings, according to a court official who said she hopes the panel can be reconstituted by early next year.