By Linda Taaffe

Los Altos Police have cracked down on juvenile lawbreakers with a program that closely mirrors correctional guidelines for adult offenders set by the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice two years ago and reviewed last month. The city received its first federal grant for the program last week. A portion of the $5,039 Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant will go toward the program.

Considered experimental about five years ago, restorative justice programs, such as the one Los Altos recently put in place, have trickled down from adult justice systems and are becoming widespread in the juvenile system as alternative correctional programs intended to make lawbreakers repair the damage done by their crime outside of traditional court.

Instead of court, offenders meet with a community board of residents who serve as probation volunteers. Instead of serving time in jail, offenders serve time in the community repairing the damage from their crime through community service.

Through the Los Altos program, juvenile residents who commit a first-time misdemeanor or lower-level felony have the opportunity to amend their crime outside of the court system by fulfilling a contract that a Neighborhood Accountability Board and the offender draft together. Part of the agreement includes a community service project, meeting with the community board, making restitution with their victims and in some cases, attending counseling.

The juveniles are held accountable to their contracts for two years or until they turn 18, whichever comes first. Those who don’t complete their contract or who reoffend risk going to court and being charged with their present and prior violations.

Loren Rucker, community coordinator for the Santa Clara County Juvenile Probation Department, which operates the program, said this is the first program that makes juveniles accountable for their actions and tracks their progress through intensive follow-up procedures.

The program doesn’t just punish juveniles, it teaches them how to give back to the community, she said. One of the program’s most important characteristics is that it requires continuing, positive action by the youth and provides the opportunity of positively rewarding them for actions taken, she said. Traditional programs don’t offer such opportunities.

Six Los Altos juveniles have gone through the program in the past month, Rucker said. Four completed their programs, while the other two have just begun, she said.

Graffiti, alcohol, theft and truancy are the most common reasons youth end up in the program. Rucker said she has seen offenders as young as 9 years old go through the program.

She said the program has an 85 to 97 percent success rate, which means most of the juveniles complete the program and don’t reoffend.

A federally funded study of six U.S. juvenile courts showed that youth who completed restitution programs were less likely to reoffend than those who served time in juvenile hall. The impact of restitution is greater than that of traditional programs by approximately eight offenses per year per 100 youth, according to the study.

Mark Laranjo, schools resource officer for the Los Altos Police Department, said there hasn’t been a sudden increase in youth arrests. The department wants to be proactive in keeping youth out of jail.

“I think this is a more effective approach in dealing with juveniles. I think we have to give it a try,” he said.

This isn’t the first time Los Altos has participated in a diversion program, though this is the first program that tracks individuals after they complete their community service. Los Altos youth have gone through this program since 2000, but until recently, the Los Altos Police Department had little participation due to department vacancies, including the schools resource position. Laranjo filled the position last September.

One of the earliest restorative justice youth programs began in Canada as a method to reduce the escalating number of juveniles going to jail. Canada imprisoned more youth than any other Western country before initiating the program.

California launched one of its first state-funded pilot programs in Gilroy, San Jose and Milpitas during the late 1990s. The program has since spread to 27 locations throughout Santa Clara County.