Watch Los Angeles County Chief Probation Officer Terri McDonald discuss the importance of Juvenile Justice Realignment and how it has helped make significant progress in California’s juvenile justice system.   

Juvenile Justice Realignment began with the passage of Senate Bill 81 in 2007. This legislation shifted the responsibility for the majority of youth in the juvenile justice system from the state to county probation departments and away from the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) run by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

Since the passage of Juvenile Justice Realignment, youth detention rates have declined 60%, juvenile arrest rates declined 73%, and the DJJ institutional population rates declined 74%.

On October 19-20, the Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC) held a two-day conference, A Decade of Progress: Probation’s Success with Juvenile Realignment, in Sacramento to highlight the success of the last decade in California juvenile justice and discuss the continued efforts to maintain and enhance a localized, evidence-based approach to juveniles in the justice system.