YOUNG OFFENDERS GETTING THE BOOT; MILITARY-STYLE CAMP AWAITS TRIAL RUN.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

Reveille at dawn, lights out at 9:30 p.m., and military-style regimen in between await 20 troubled teens when Ventura County officials open a juvenile boot camp next month.

Through a four-month cycle of drills, exercise, counseling and classes, Los Prietos Boys Camp is expected to complement other methods of rehabilitating youthful offenders.

``The main idea is that they develop some self-discipline, self-confidence and feel some accountability to the community so they won't become reinvolved in crime,'' said Terry Warnock, a division chief with the Ventura County Corrections Services Agency. ``Work crews (and) physical exercise will help them develop more positive behavior in the future.''

The facility also will relieve some of the pressure from Ventura County's juvenile system, which has only 155 beds to handle up to 10,000 youths who are referred to the probation department each year for possible incarceration.

``Every little bit helps,'' Warnock said. ``We expect to see it help quite a bit for a few months, and then the numbers will start to creep up again, which is indicative of the problem with juvenile crime increasing - particularly violent crime.''

Crowding at Juvenile Hall was among the reasons the juvenile justice system was declared to be in a state of emergency by last year's county Grand Jury. The county's youth population has grown 114 percent since 1985, yet juvenile facilities have added only eight beds since 1971.

This has prompted a number of experiments, such as an early release program that allows about 50 youths to serve their sentence at home, with their movements monitored through an electronic ankle bracelet.

The boot camp, a joint venture among Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, has never been considered a solution to this problem, merely a stopgap. Ventura County plans to build a new juvenile justice complex in the next few years.

Not enough space

Of the 6,000 to 10,000 youths who get in trouble with police in Ventura County each year, about 2,500 are actually sent to Juvenile Hall, the hub of the system, Warnock said. Youths who end up there usually have a history of arrests or are suspected of committing a serious or violent crime.

Few inmates stay in Juvenile Hall longer than six months because there are not enough beds. The 84-bed facility in downtown Ventura generally houses 109 youths a day.

The county has two other options for handling them.

The Juvenile Restitution Project allows up to 25 youths, ages 16 or 17, to repay victims for property crimes by holding down a regular job in the community while being locked up the rest of the day. Independent living and job skills are the focus of this program, which handles about 150 kids a year.

Teens with more serious, often mental, problems can be committed to the higher-security Frank A. Colston Youth Center, a 45-bed residential treatment program that for many youths is the last stop before being sent to the California Youth Authority, the juvenile equivalent of state prison. Colston also handles about 150 kids a year.

Boot camp adds a third tier to this system, one more structured than the restitution project but less jail-like than Colston.

``With each level, you're talking about kids whose crimes are either more serious or they've been involved in crimes over a period of time to the point where managing them in the community no longer works,'' Warnock said.

The camp is patterned after a system pioneered six years ago in Los Angeles County.

``We were the first in the country to open military-style boot camps for juveniles, and we've seen about a 20 percent recidivism rate (overall),'' said Craig Levy, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Probation Department.

Levy said his agency runs four boot camps, where 480 youths wear military fatigues and participate in drills, marches, regular schooling, work projects and counseling.

``We're trying to encourage behavioral changes,'' he said. ``A lot of that is teaching them discipline, setting expectations and making sure they meet them. Many of these kids have never had a success in their lives. When they go to a boot camp and make it through the program, that is an incredible success.''

No time for trouble

Los Prietos Boys Camp, about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara near Lake Cachuma, will be similar to Los Angeles County's boot camps, although the participants will not have to wear fatigues.

The 20 Ventura County recruits will be repeat offenders of nonviolent crimes such as burglary or drugs. They will use half the camp's 40 beds, with the other 20 being shared by Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Most of the Ventura County youths, ages 13 to 17, will stay at camp for four months, allowing 60 kids to cycle through the program each year.

It will be a very structured environment, according to Carol Hurtt, a division manager with the Ventura County Corrections Services Agency.

The teens will rise each day near dawn, do calisthenics and clean their quarters before marching to breakfast and class. Afternoons will be used for work or training programs. Evenings are reserved for drug and alcohol, mental health, victim awareness or other types of counseling.

``There won't be time for TV or anything like that,'' Hurtt said. ``We have high hopes for the program. We think the kids need structure and will do very well in a boot camp-type setting.''

Los Prietos is not a new camp. Santa Barbara County has run a juvenile rehab and treatment camp there for years. Ventura County sent juvenile offenders there in the late 1970s.

But the boot camp is new and owes its genesis to the 1994 federal crime bill, which granted $865,000 to the project. Ventura County contributed an additional $560,000 last year.

This money was used to construct two new buildings on the forest property - a dorm room for the 40 kids and a building for vocational programs.

The boot camp and Santa Barbara's rehab camp will share the original office, school and cafeteria buildings, although the two groups will rarely mix.

Follow-through important

Hurtt described the boot camp dorm as one large room where all the teens sleep on cots under the supervision of Santa Barbara County probation officers. Ventura County probation officers will visit the camp regularly to meet with the teens, review their progress and work up a plan for ongoing supervision upon their release.

``After-care is essential,'' Hurtt said. ``To send kids away to boot camp for three or four months and then send them back to a bad situation in the community won't help much. In this case, they will be in after-care for the first six months after boot camp. Most studies show kids fail on probation in the first 60 to 90 days.''

Achieving a low recidivism rate would help the county's bottom line. It costs up to $32,000 a year to place a juvenile in the California Youth Authority, Warnock said. At any one time, Ventura County has about 100 youths in CYA.

The county's best shot at getting a new Juvenile Hall complex rides on two bond issues on the November 1998 ballot. They would provide a combined $950,000 toward building juvenile justice facilities in California.

Warnock is coordinating the planning process for the proposed complex. Although there is no price tag, the county would be required to put up between 10 percent to 25 percent matching funds.

Warnock said the new system would be modeled after a wheel, with the hub being a new, 350-bed Juvenile Hall and the spokes being various treatment programs involving various county agencies, community groups and camps such as Los Prietos.