Head of new juvenile offenders agency aims to keep them close to home

Katherine L. Lucero has retired from the Santa Clara County Superior Court to be the first director of the new Office of Youth and Community Restoration, which oversees juvenile lawbreakers who previously were under the supervision of the prisons department.

Lucero started her new job on Tuesday.

The agency, created last year by the passage of SB 823, is a realization of Gov. Gavin Newsom's promise to overhaul the juvenile justice system when he took office. The agency replaced the Division of Juvenile Justice and was tasked with supporting the state's transition from centralized state-run facilities for minors who have committed crimes to county-run Secure Track Facilities.

"It's getting kids closer to home rather than sending them far away to have rehabilitative intervention," Lucero said in an interview Thursday.

The agency is part of the state's Health and Human Services Agency, unlike its predecessor, which was part of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"That in and of itself is another nod to the fact that we realize that kids are different," Lucero said. "They're not adults and they should not be treated like adults who commit law violations."

Under the new system which began last summer, youthful offenders, including those convicted of violent crimes, are being kept within their counties rather than being sent to facilities that at times can be hundreds of miles from their homes.

Offenders who were already in state-run facilities before the legislation was enacted are also being transferred.

"Kids do better when they're in their own communities and when they have ongoing contact ... with their families," Lucero said. "Really all of us need these connections in order to thrive, but especially a youth, who is really forming their identity and forming their character. They need to be connected to their families, to their communities."

Lucero said keeping minors who've committed crimes away from their community can be harmful and counterproductive to the goal of rehabilitation.

"It's hard for a youth to really take in all of the programming and services that some of our youth are scheduled to be involved in when they're heartsick, when they have lost connection to the people that they love and I think that this really recognizes that," she said.

All 58 of the state's counties have submitted plans to house juvenile offenders locally, whether that means having established their own facilities or contracted out to larger neighboring counties. At the facilities, the juveniles will have access to rehabilitative services depending on their needs such as substance abuse or mental health services.

The agency's role now, as counties establish their own facilities, Lucero said, will be mostly supportive.

"I'm hoping that we will become a voice for the type of models that make sure that kids are not further harmed in our government systems," she said.

The majority of youths that are sent to the Secured Track Facilities are highly traumatized, according to Lucero.

"We want to make sure that our communities understand that these are kids, that they're not necessarily waking up one day with this thought about criminal conduct. These are kids often in survival mode, who often are not surrounded by the best circumstances or they are kids that are doing the best they can," she said.

"And the science shows us that this is a great time, in fact, a critical time for us to intervene... I've never met a youth in my years on the bench who didn't want to do better," she said.