San Diego County Breaking Cycles

San Diego County (Calif.) Breaking Cycles has components of both prevention and graduated sanctions.

The prevention component targets youths who are not yet involved in the juvenile justice system but who exhibit problem behavior such as disobeying their parents, violating curfew, repeated truancy, running away from home, or experimenting with drugs or alcohol. Youths can also self-refer if they experience parental neglect or abuse or they have other problems at home. Community Assessment Teams (CATs)--consisting of a coordinator, case managers, probation officers, and other experts--assess the needs of the youth and his or her family and then provide direct services or referrals to resources in the community to reduce the high-risk behaviors. CATs speak many different languages to communicate directly with their clients. Whenever possible, services are brought directly to the client and family.

The graduated sanctions component tries to prevent further involvement in delinquency by combining sanctions with treatment. A juvenile who is at risk of an out-of-home placement can be referred to Breaking Cycles through a Juvenile Court Order, then a screening committee determines whether the juvenile will enter the program by examining his or her current offense, prior criminal history, and other personal, social, and family characteristics. A youth is brought to Breaking Cycles, put into Juvenile Hall, and begins a 10- to 14- day evaluation of educational performance, mental health needs, drug/alcohol dependencies, self and family resiliency, institutional adjustment, and strengths and future goals. A case plan is developed for each youth by a multidisciplinary team, with the family's input. A youth can be placed in a community-based institution or a home. Many youths start in a highly structured environment and, through goal attainment, step down to a lower level of commitment. Reassessments are performed weekly on the basis of public safety, the youth's rehabilitation, and subsequent compliance with the program's case plan developed in the assessment plan.

The goals of this program are to

- Prevent youth from becoming delinquent by focusing strengths-based, family-centered community resources and programs on "at-risk" youth and their families.
- Improve the juvenile justice and community intervention for juvenile offenders through a system of Graduated Sanctions (Intervention).

The evaluation of the prevention component found that the treatment group was less likely to receive a referral to probation (19 percent versus 27 percent); however, there was no real difference between the two groups in the amount of true findings (7 percent versus 9 percent). The treatment group was significantly less likely to use alcohol and drugs both preintervention and postintervention. There was virtually no change in school enrollment status for the treatment group after the intervention (97 percent versus 96 percent), while there was a decrease in enrollment for the control group (99 percent versus 91 percent). Both groups showed a decrease in the amount of juveniles suspended or expelled. The treatment group dropped from 54 percent to 38 percent, while the control group dropped from 57 percent to 39 percent. School performance was measured by being at the appropriate grade level in school. At pretest almost all juveniles were at the appropriate grade level (96 percent of the treatment group, 97 percent of the control), but by posttest the percentage for the control group dropped to 84 percent while the treatment group only dropped to 94 percent.