Report says LA County needs to give kids on probation more help

A report issued Thursday says Los Angeles County needs to offer much more help to kids who end up in juvenile hall and probation camps. The report arrives as L.A. County’s probation department is the target of federal scrutiny for the way it treats kids.

Researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government make several recommendations in their report. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas commissioned the study.

“The first is that the county should focus on implementing strategies to minimize education and mental health disruptions during transition," Ridley-Thomas said. "This is critically important.”

The report says many of the girls and boys on probation struggle with mental illness, substance abuse and illiteracy – and don’t get the help they need after their release.

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Ridley-Thomas said L.A. County needs to expand programs that work, like its day reporting centers where young people get intensive help after they're released from custody.

Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund joined Ridley-Thomas as he released the study.

"Many of them come into the system because we have let them down," Edelman said. "Families have let them down, the mental health system has let them down, the special education and education systems have let them down"

Edelman said we haven't provided enough places for kids to go.

"We don’t have alternatives in the community to compete with the gangs and the drug dealers who are open seven days a week," she said. "The churches are closed, many of them, most of those days.”

The probation report is entitled "Juvenile Reentry in Los Angeles County: An exploration of Strengths, Barriers and Policy Options."