Senate Bill 823 – DJJ Realignment Implementation

For nearly two decades, California has enacted a series of legislative and voter-approved measures designed to reduce commitments of youth to the state juvenile and adult systems by reducing reliance on incarceration and expanding community-based options for youth. To further reach this goal, the state recently aligned the responsibility for managing all youth under the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts to County Probation Departments. Additional Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) Realignment information can be found at the Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC) website: https://www.cpoc.org/post/djj-additional-material.

Effective July 1, 2021, the State established the Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) within the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS). The purpose of the new office is to support the successful implementation of the transition of the responsibility of justice involved youth from the State to counties, which includes on-going programing and interventions. OYCR will be responsible for (1) developing a report on youth outcomes; (2) identifying policy recommendations for improved outcomes and integrated programs and services to best support delinquent youth; (3) identifying and disseminating best practices to help inform rehabilitative and restorative youth practices, including education, diversion, re-entry, religious and victims’ services; and (4) providing technical assistance as requested to develop and expand local youth diversion opportunities to meet the varied needs of the justice involved youth population. For additional information, please visit: https://www.chhs.ca.gov/oycr/.