The youth offender program is aimed to steer certain young inmates away from high-security level prisons where they would face more serious and violent criminal influences.
The program created by an Assembly bill forms a committee to review cases of youth transferring to the adult system. It opens the possibility of housing at a lower-level security adult prison in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The change was the topic of a workshop for 13 juvenile offenders nearing moves to an adult prison, reports Joe Orlando, CDCR public information officer.
“This is a great opportunity for you to work within this… system,” said Dainette Bowens, reentry coordinator for the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility.
The workshop also included representatives of CDCR’s Division of Adult Institutions, fire camps and Deuel Vocational Institution.
Correctional counselor Tracy Williams explored the youths’ desires for careers outside of prison. The youth said they wanted to be counselors, construction workers, chefs, artists and truck drivers. Williams told the youth that their change “begins today.”