CITY OF POMONA
COUNCIL REPORT
July 17, 2023
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: James Makshanoff, City Manager
Submitted By: Michael Ellis, Police Chief
SUBJECT: REPORT ON YOUTH DIVERSION PROGRAMS AND POLICIES RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council review and discuss this report, and direct staff to prepare an Ordinance and related Resolution that supports the Police Department’s involvement in youth diversion programs.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Pomona Police Department has been collaborating with community leaders and organizations to develop sustainable youth diversion programs and policies. The Police Department has also collaborated with Los Angeles County entities in order to participate in existing youth diversion programs. These collaborative efforts have resulted in successfully diverting youth from the criminal justice system. The Police Department and community leaders now seek to memorialize the City’s commitment to youth diversion programs through the future adoption of an Ordinance (Attachment No. 1), Resolutions and policies. Staff seeks direction from Council to move forward in preparing documents for future approval.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
DISCUSSION:
Youth Diversion in Los Angeles County
The City of Pomona has a history of promoting and participating in youth diversion programs. As far back as 1977, the City participated in the Pomona Valley Juvenile Diversion Project. Over a four-year period, 147 referrals were made by law enforcement. In the early 2000s, community organizations throughout Los Angeles County began focusing again on the juvenile justice system and ways to divert youth from jails. The following information is quoted directly from a comprehensive report from the UCLA School of Law Criminal Justice System Youth Diversion Toolkit. “At the time, most youth arrests or citations in Los Angeles County were for status offenses, misdemeanor offenses such as petty theft, and low-level felonies. Community organizers pushed for transformative changes in the prosecution of low-level offenses against young people. These efforts included campaigns to decriminalize truancy, curfew, and fare evasion violations; end Informal and Juvenile Traffic Courts (IJTCs); grant amnesty for 250,000 pre-2012 juvenile tickets; and provide free public transit fare for all Los Angeles County students. These efforts were also foundational precursors to the County’s establishment of the division of Youth Diversion and Development (YDD). As a result of community pressure, in January 2017, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (BOS) established an ad-hoc Youth Diversion Subcommittee and tasked them with developing a plan to coordinate effective youth diversion in Los Angeles County. The Subcommittee recommended the establishment of a central office to provide countywide coordination and contracts for youth diversion services, envisioning a process where law enforcement would counsel and release the youth it encounters, or refer eligible youth to community-based organizations for services instead of issuing arrests and citations for low-level felony, misdemeanor, and infraction matters. In November 2017, YDD was established within Los Angeles County's Office of Diversion and Reentry, which is housed in the County's Department of Health Services. YDD’s mission is to advance youth development infrastructure and implement a pre-arrest and pre-booking youth diversion model that empowers community-based organizations as the providers of diversion programs in lieu of arrest, with the goal of reducing youth involvement in the justice system. In 2015, eighty percent of youth arrested in Los Angeles County were legally eligible for diversion in lieu of arrest or citation. YDD’s overall goal is to receive referrals from each law enforcement partner for about eighty percent of youth arrests by 2024. YDD began diverting youth in April 2019. As of April 2022, YDD has received a total of 1,373 youth referrals. As of the publication of this toolkit, YDD is averaging about 127 referrals per quarter, and is not yet averaging its initial benchmark of receiving approximately 100 referrals per month. The YDD Model YDD is a countywide centralized coordinating office that provides infrastructure and guides the implementation and evaluation of youth diversion in Los Angeles County. YDD’s pre-arrest diversion program spans across eighty-eight different cities, from Lancaster to Pomona, and accepts misdemeanor referrals as well as referrals of low-level felonies for diversion. YDD contracts with community-based organizations (CBO providers) to provide them funding to implement youth diversion programs. Each CBO provider is paired with a law enforcement agency (LEA) that provides referrals. In addition, YDD has created intake and assessment processes; developed data collection and communication infrastructure; and provided technical assistance and training to CBO providers. YDD has also taken a leading role in local initiatives to scale up diversion and youth development work countywide. There are several steps to make a YDD referral. First, a law enforcement officer stops a young person in the community and issues a citation. Then, the citation is sent to that LEA’s YDD liaison, another law enforcement officer, who determines whether the youth is eligible for YDD diversion. If the youth is determined to be eligible, the charge is referred to that LEA’s CBO provider partner that has agreed to receive these referrals. These referrals may be pre-arrest or pre-booking. The LEA sends the CBO provider the police report and/or citation; intake form; and contact information for the youth.
Once the referral is received, a case manager from the CBO provider reaches out to the youth and their family directly to set up an individualized assessment. After the youth meets with the case manager, the case manager works directly with the youth and family to determine a case plan to address the young person’s needs and mitigate any harms caused from the alleged offense. Generally, case plans are between three and twelve months. The threshold for completion is “substantial compliance” with the case plan, which CBO providers have the discretion to decide. Once the youth completes the case plan, the CBO provider notifies the referring LEA. In some cases, the CBO provider offers aftercare services to the youth, which are optional. Once notified of a youth’s completion, the LEA does not forward the charges to Probation or the District Attorney for filing and will seal any juvenile police records that were created, like citations or police reports. If a youth does not complete the case plan, the LEA has discretion to refer the charge to the Probation Department, the District Attorney’s office, or take no further action.” City of Pomona Commitment to Diversion Alternatives
The Pomona Police Department has entered into various operational agreements in the form of MOU’s to ensure that Pomona youth have the opportunity to participate in pre-arrest and pre-booking diversion programs in Los Angeles County. Positive outcomes have resulted from this work.
To ensure a continued commitment in the future, City staff has discussed the possibility of adopting an Ordinance requiring the City to participate in these available programs. This is supported by the youth diversion collaborative (Attachment No. 2). Following the adoption of an Ordinance; the City would then adopt a Resolution setting forth a specific policy with details.
Next Steps
If the City Council directs staff to prepare an Ordinance for the Council’s consideration, staff could present the Ordinance at the Council meeting on August 7, 2023, for first reading. Then prior to the second reading and the effective date of that Ordinance, staff would continue to meet with community leaders to complete the pre-arrest youth diversion policy. The policy would then be presented to the City Council for adoption. A working draft of an ordinance is attached to this report.
Prepared by:
_____________________________
Michael Ellis
Police Chief
ATTACHMENT(S):
Attachment No. 1 – Draft Discussion Ordinance (Requiring Youth Diversion Policy) Attachment No. 2 – Collaborative Letter of Support
Attachment No. 3 – PowerPoint Presentation on Youth Diversion Report on Youth Diversion Programs and Policies