In Los Angeles County, the Probation Department oversees the implementation of programs funded by the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA). In this report, the authors present findings from the process and outcome evaluation of two such court-based programs for youth with significant clinical needs, including mental health diagnoses and developmental disabilities.

Evaluation of Two Court Interventions for Youth with Significant Clinical Needs

Los Angeles County's CARE Project and Juvenile Mental Health Court

Laura Whitaker, Sarita D. Lee, Aarya Suryavanshi, Sierra Smucker, Tara Laila Blagg, Marylou Gilbert, Susan Turner, Dionne Barnes-Proby, Stephanie Brooks Holliday

ResearchPublished Sep 4, 2024

The Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA), administered by the California Board of State and Community Corrections, provides funding to counties to support programs that have proved their effectiveness in curbing crime among at-risk youth and youth involved in the juvenile justice system. In Los Angeles County, the Probation Department oversees the implementation of JJCPA-funded programs, which are approved by the county through the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council.

In 2019, the Probation Department selected RAND to provide evaluation services related to JJCPA-funded programs. In this report, the authors present findings from the process and outcome evaluation of two court-based programs for youth with significant clinical needs, including mental health diagnoses and developmental disabilities: the Client Assessment Recommendation and Evaluation (CARE) Project and the juvenile mental health court (JMHC). Findings will be of interest to Los Angeles County stakeholders, including program staff, Probation Department staff, and members of the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, as well as agencies in other locations that are interested in implementing programs of this nature.

Key Findings

Both the CARE Project and JMHC cited staffing limitations as a challenge

  • CARE and JMHC serve youth with a high level of needs, and both reported increasing severity of youth needs within the programs.
  • Program staff reported having high caseloads, leading to overworked staff and concerns about serving enough youth or serving their cases as effectively as possible.

Both programs aim to connect youth with needed services, and one major challenge is an insufficient number of suitable community-based resources, programs, or placements

  • Although this shortfall directly affects the work of both programs, it is beyond the control of the programs themselves to make needed changes.
  • Agency coordination is also a challenge, and highly cooperative partnership and buy-in from agency leaders will be necessary to facilitate improvements.

Despite challenges, staff report several facilitators of program implementation, particularly the quality of staff in both programs

  • Staff were very motivated to achieve successful outcomes for youth and described their colleagues as highly effective.

Staff from both programs report strong perceptions of effectiveness

  • Staff noted the large proportion of youth involved in the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles County who have significant clinical needs and the importance of programs such as CARE and JMHC to provide rehabilitation.

Recommendations

  • Both CARE and JMHC should increase the number of staff.
  • CARE should consider adding new types of staff (e.g., paralegal, case manager) to assist with CARE staff workloads.
  • Both programs should prioritize the process by which youth transition from juvenile halls and camps to the community.
  • JMHC should be expanded to other courts in the county.
  • Both programs should implement both equity training and tracking for equity.
  • The programs should develop a system for inclusion of youth and caregiver input in the evaluation.
  • The programs should improve the availability of data to assess program effectiveness.

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Document Details

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Whitaker, Laura, Sarita D. Lee, Aarya Suryavanshi, Sierra Smucker, Tara Laila Blagg, Marylou Gilbert, Susan Turner, Dionne Barnes-Proby, and Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Evaluation of Two Court Interventions for Youth with Significant Clinical Needs: Los Angeles County's CARE Project and Juvenile Mental Health Court, RAND Corporation, RR-A3217-1, 2024. As of September 6, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3217-1.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Whitaker, Laura, Sarita D. Lee, Aarya Suryavanshi, Sierra Smucker, Tara Laila Blagg, Marylou Gilbert, Susan Turner, Dionne Barnes-Proby, and Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Evaluation of Two Court Interventions for Youth with Significant Clinical Needs: Los Angeles County's CARE Project and Juvenile Mental Health Court. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3217-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Probation Department and conducted within the Justice Policy Program of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

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