As a junior Social Work student, I was told along with my fellow colleagues to start thinking about possible field placements for our senior year placement. I was currently at County Probation adult intake and enjoyed it just enough to drive one hour a week to work. I thought about working with juveniles and possibly the Youth Authority. I was a group leader for a university volunteer program with the Youth Authority.  As I thought about wanting to work with troubled youths, I went to the field placement coordinator for the School of Social Work, and ask if the Parole office would be a possibility.

On my first day at the Parole office, I was handed a resource book for neighboring county. This book had a variety of services for parolees for the neighboring county. My supervisor had asked me if I would like to work on something along the same lines for the local office. The parole office covers 27 counties. I started with a specific county because the parole agent who covers that county was having trouble seeing all of his parolees due to the travel time involved, writing reports, and seeking out of home placements for the parolees. This was the first county I had started with and could tell that this was going to be an extensive project.

Statement of Need

I thought that this would have been a fairly simple task. However, a neighboring county had all needed information organized in one location for the parolees and parole agents. The local parole office has about the same number of parolees in 27 counties that the neighboring parole office has in about 2 counties. The need as for the parole agent more than the parolee, an agent can now use the 60 page resources to find of possible placements and counselors in the 27 counties. The original idea was to focus on the county in most need.

Description of the Intervention

I was given a list of county behavioral health office numbers. I called to find what services were offered within the specific county. I found that some of the counties have very limited resources or even sent their clients to other counties for services. On the other hand, some counties have an unlimited amount of resources. I then realized that the location of the county was a big part of having resources. For example, one county sends their clients out of state to Oregon. Other counties are so close together that they share resources such as out-of-home placement. I spent about 25 hours making phone calls and setting up times for when I could go out to the facilities and tour. My supervisor suggested that I evaluate if the facility would be a valuable resource or if the number should be kept on file.

Evaluation of the Intervention

I have found that my work has helped all the parole agents in finding placement and treatment for their parolees. I have come to a point where I need to decide if I should have this resource book printed or if I should leave it as an electronic database. If I print the resources out, it would be useful outside the local office. Other parole offices might see a resource that would be useful and perform an out-of-county placement.

Within my research, I found that other states have an aggressive approach to juvenile offenders. The other states use community involvement to aid the juveniles with community service hours. In California, many youths are required to do community service, but do not have the full support from the community (Guarino-Ghezzi, 1994).

Many of the youths sent to the Youth Authority (YA) have some type of mental health issue. This does not mean that if a youth commits a crime and has a mental illness diagnoses, he/she will not automatically go to the YA. Nearly half of the youths in the YA institutions have some type of mental health illness. If the state was divided into its four major section, the Northern half is one section. This is the area that I found a variety of resources that have mental health services. I found that the statistics from the state in the 2001-year showed that there are four major areas that would qualify a person eligible to the YA (California Youth Authority, 2001).

Reflections on the Project

I have enjoyed this project including the literature review; I like researching a topic of my choice. I do have to say that if I could do this over again, I would. I thought that this resource book would be for just my local County. When it came to locating resources, I did not even look at my local County until I had checked out every other county first. I would like to think that this project is far from over, that if there are interns from CSU Chico or Butte College they would be able to work in more detail, expanding the resources. When I started this I did not think of how much detail would be put into this project. I thought that I would just compile a list of phone numbers and contact person at each agency. At this point, I am very pleased with what I have completed, but feel that the project is only in the beginning stages. 

References

California Youth Authority (2001). First commitment characteristics, State Department of the Youth Authority. Retrieved 9/20/02 from www.cya.ca.gov/contact/research_tips.html.

Guarino-Ghezzi, S. (1994) Reiterative policing: A model for urban juvenile offenders. Corrections Today, 56, (7), 141-144.

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