Juveniles Find Direction With Community Partners

A brick wall separates the juveniles at Camp David Gonzales from the serene Santa Monica Mountains surrounding the youth detention camp. Yet for many of the male teenage residents, Camp Gonzales is a refuge from their normal lives, offering an unusual number of opportunities for a better life post-detention. ”Oscar joined the camp’s newspaper, Behind the Wall, which he says is ‘good for learning writing skills and self-expression.’ Now the managing editor, Oscar, who just turned 18, says, ‘I can get the group in order. I’m a leader.’ ”Glenn, 18, participated in a sound production class that helped him ‘release stress’ by writing raps and creating beats. ‘I wrote about my life,’ says the high school graduate who hopes to get a job or go to college when he leaves Camp Gonzales. ”These enrichment classes are supported by Community Partners, an after-school educational program intended to ‘redirect and relocate’ youth offenders, says Palisadian Paul Cummins, educator and founder of Crossroads School and New Roads School. ”’When we first went out there [to Camp Gonzales], we weren’t particularly welcomed,’ says Cummins, who created Community Partners through the New Visions Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on improving educational opportunities for underserved children. ‘We were an inconvenience to probation officers, and there was resentment because we were the ‘do-gooders.” ”Located in Calabasas, Camp Gonzales is one of 18 youth detention camps run by Los Angeles County’s Probation Department. Cummins was introduced to the camp through Carol Biondi, a children’s health advocate who asked him to visit the camp and offer solutions for improvements. ”’Once I saw what wasn’t being done, I couldn’t help but get involved,’ Cummins says. ”He noticed that the boys, ages 14 to 18, weren’t being assessed carefully (there were no statistics or information on their interests), nor were they being encouraged or given the opportunity to expand their interests. Many of them were leaving the camp and going straight back into the same communities, neighborhoods and gangs because they weren’t being placed in better situations. ”With the federal government’s statistic on recidivism at about 80 percent, Cummins had reason to be concerned. L.A. County’s recidivism rate is unknown, as records are difficult to obtain. ”The main objective of Community Partners is ‘to give [the boys] a sense of self-respect and a vision for a better life, through adults who can teach and place them,’ says Cummins, who talked with some of the minors about their interests during his initial visit. The camp’s population is about 60 percent Latino and 40 percent African American. ”Sitting in a circle with the boys, Cummins told the group that his hobbies were basketball and writing poetry, and as he was leaving, one boy put a book of his own poetry in Cummins’ pocket and said, ‘I write poetry, too.’ ”’We’ve made some startling discoveries about these kids,’ Cummins says, referring to their interests and talents. ”He hired Joe P’rez to run the program as full-time director. P’rez is ‘savvy, cool and tough,’ Cummins says of the Harvard graduate who earned his bachelor’s degree in government in 1997. ‘He’s got a sixth sense of how to negotiate the minefields.’ ” A native of Hawaii, P’rez taught at a private American high school in Puerto Rico for five years before continuing his education in Los Angeles, where he is currently finishing his doctorate in the Educational Leadership Program at UCLA. ”’California has the highest rate of incarceration for youth of any highly populated state,’ says P’rez, explaining that youth detention camps are ‘the second most secure setting [after the California Youth Authority [CYA].’ ”Most of the minors at Camp Gonzales are sent there for the less violent felony crimes, such as burglary or assault. Many of them are habitual low-level offenders who serve three, six or nine months. ”Daniel, 14, was involved in a robbery and had to return to the camp for a second stay. Now he writes stories about ‘how camp changed from the last time I was here’ for the opinion section of Behind the Wall. Other sections include sports, arts and entertainment, camp news and world news (each with its own editor), though Daniel says his focus is mainly on camp-related issues since ‘I don’t know what goes on in the world because I’m behind walls.’ ”Minors also write book reviews and poetry, conduct interviews with camp staff, and write summaries of news they read in magazines and newspapers brought in for their class each week. ”Carol Biondi started the publication about 2-1/2 years ago by bringing Los Angeles Daily Journal editor Katrina Dewey onto the scene. Dewey, who works with the boys every Saturday, says, ‘The core group is pretty dedicated about why they’re [on the newspaper staff].’ ”Talking to the boys on a recent Saturday, she explains that the goal of the newspaper program is to ‘talk about your feelings in a constructive way, learn to write together and create a better possibility for you guys in the world.’ ”When Community Partners got involved two years ago, a $30,000 Soros grant from the Youth Initiatives Program of the Open Society Institute helped provide the newspaper staff with equipment such as computers, printers, television sets and two white marker boards, as well as more supervision and organization. ”With the program’s support, the newspaper experience is ‘increasing their communication skills,’ says Deputy Probation Officer Stephanie Saunders, who helps run the newspaper class. More importantly, ‘they actually accomplish something and it’s here in black and white,’ she says, holding up the latest issue of Behind the Wall. ”Chief Probation Officer Richard Shumsky agrees with Saunders. While the majority of the boys read at the fourth-grade level, the newspaper class is ‘good for self-image and self-esteem,’ says Shumsky, a former Palisadian who visits the camp once a week. One artist who worked on the paper was ‘a virtual non-reader’ and another helped distribute the monthly publication, which the Daily Journal lays out and then sends to a printing shop. ”Through Community Partners, the young men can also take film production, drama (with The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company), a garden project class, indoor soccer, yoga, an employment skills class and a mysteries/human development class that runs like a discussion group based on Native American traditions. The sound production class is subcontracted with Sound Art. ”’Our goal is to turn on the kids in the classroom,’ says P’rez, who teaches indoor soccer. ‘We sneak in writing and literacy skills.’ ”The classes run in six-week cycles and most meet twice a week, Monday through Saturday. Times are organized with other camp activities, classes and programs, since the minors also attend regular academic classes while at Camp Gonzales. ”P’rez feels that the Community Partners program, run by New Roads, was needed because ‘sometimes it’s a conflict of interest for probation officers who are reporting violations but also trying to help the kids. It’s good [for the officers] to be partnered with a community-based program that is solely focused on helping the kids.’ ”In addition to six teachers who have higher degrees, Community Partners has two full-time placement coordinators who help relocate the juveniles post-detention to places such as the California Conservation Corps, Job Corps, private/public magnet schools and community colleges. ”While it’s still too early to talk about success rates and statistics, anecdotal evidence shows that the program has succeeded in increasing the number of camp minors placed in community colleges. ”About half of the college-age boys in the program go to college, says P’rez, who explains that Community Partners serves a third of the camp’s population, which totals about 40 to 50 boys per session, with 8 to 12 people per class. However, Community Partners has opened the program to more participants than the county is funding, in attempt to help a larger number of minors. ”State funding comes from the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA), a grant program administered by the Board of Corrections. Community Partners receives $360,000 a year, at $3,000 per capita. ”’So far, we’ve escaped the budget cuts,’ says Cummins, who’s helped place a couple of the boys at New Roads. P’rez adds that in the category of Intensive Training Service programs, Community Partners was the only one still intact after recent budget cuts. ”The program placed one minor, who had been ‘deeply entrenched in gangs at age 15′ at a high school in Colorado. This boy was shot almost immediately after leaving Camp Gonzales, but survived, and Community Partners was able to get probation terminated so that he could leave the state. ”’He’s had struggles, but the struggles that you have in a new school environment,’ P’rez says of the minor, who’s been at the Colorado school for six months. ”Another minor, who developed a knack for writing screenplays through the film production class, is now studying at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, located in the San Jacinto Mountains. ” ”For many of them, ‘this is their first positive [youth detention] camp experience,’ says P’rez. ‘It’s the first time someone gave them the benefit of the doubt, the first time they’ve been seen as someone with potential.’ ”Community Partners selects minors for the program based on their age and length of stay at camp. The program targets older boys who are turning 18 because there’s a greater opportunity of placing them at a community college when they leave, as well as those who are at camp for at least six months, since that’s a sufficient amount of time for ‘an intensive transition,’ P’rez explains. ”However, in making initial assessments of minors interested in the program, P’rez also looks for boys who would do well in enrichment classes for shorter periods of time, since the classes ‘plant seeds.’ He organizes ongoing meetings to check their progress and also oversees all of the case management. ”’We’re building a culture of trust [at Camp Gonzales],’ Cummins says. ‘Our program is valuable. And when a kid succeeds, we all look good.’