Child Watch

The Frightening Reality of Life After Juvenile Hall

Did you know that of all the counties that make up the Bay Area, Alameda County incarcerates the most youth offenders? The East Bay Agency for Children (EBAC) is well aware of this fact, as the number of youth referred to them grows.

Once released from juvenile hall, this frequently forgotten part of society can find it difficult to complete juvenile probation and attend school regularly, with many of them feeling lost and hopeless about their future.

At EBAC, we recognize this problem and through our Probation Mental Health Program we aim to improve their life choices and actions, ensuring they have suitable role models and the support they need.

We understand the struggles experienced by these young people and work closely with them to assist their reentry into school and to reduce their risk of re-offending. EBAC provides a case manager to help the individual and their family address the problems of daily living, housing, education, job development and other critical needs. We work with them at their schools and in the community.

In addition, our highly trained clinicians provide individual, family and group therapy at Oakland’s three continuation high schools (Dewey, Rudsdale and Ralph Bunche). These schools specialize in students at risk of school failure and drop-out. It has been proven that school failure directly increases the likelihood of criminal behavior and many of the schools’ students have already been in the juvenile justice system.

So how does EBAC measure success?

“It’s simple, we know it works when they don’t reoffend and graduate,” said Jill Reed, program director, Probation Mental Health. “It’s a fact that being in juvenile hall is a strong predictor of continuing incarceration in the juvenile or adult justice systems and this is a cycle we work hard to break. We understand the challenges and isolation felt by these youths and can offer real help.”

EBAC’s success can be seen in their recent results – 44% of their youth clients violated their probation conditions in the month prior to their involvement with EBAC, within three months this figure had more than halved and after 14 months none were violating the terms of their probation.