ARTICLE 9. Youth Correctional Centers [1850. - 1861.]

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC 9.

in effect

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1850. Section 1850.

The purpose of this article is to protect society more effectively by providing a system of flexible constraints and controls that utilize short-term confinement for selected youthful offenders, followed by intensive probation supervision. To this end it is the intent of the Legislature that this article be liberally interpreted in conformity with its declared purpose.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1851. Section 1851.

In order to provide appropriate facilities for the rehabilitative treatment of young offenders who otherwise may be committed to the Department of the Youth Authority or the Department of Corrections, and in order to provide this treatment in the community where family and personal relationships can be strengthened rather than severed, and in order to provide a range of alternative dispositions to the courts before whom young offenders appear, and in order to provide opportunities for private citizens to contribute actively to the rehabilitation of offenders in their own neighborhood, youth correctional centers may be established by ordinance by boards of supervisors of any county, as provided in this article.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1852. Section 1852.

Complete operation and authority for administration of the youth correctional center shall be vested in the county. The board of supervisors shall place responsibility for internal management with the chief probation officer.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1853. Section 1853.

Juvenile court wards and criminal offenders eligible for probation may be committed to youth correctional centers as a condition of probation, provided they come within all of the following descriptions: (1) Who have not, at the time of commitment, reached the age of 25 years. (2) Who have not been found guilty of a capital offense in a criminal proceeding. (3) Who have been declared a ward of the juvenile court pursuant to Section 602, Welfare and Institutions Code, or who have been found guilty in a criminal proceeding of one or more public offenses where the maximum term of confinement is not less than six months if the sentences run consecutively. (4) Whose rehabilitation and reformation requires short-term confinement followed by intensive probation supervision. The juvenile court may in its discretion commit any eligible ward of the juvenile court to the youth correctional center program and any criminal court may in its discretion commit any eligible offender to the youth correctional center program as a condition of probation, except that no commitment shall be placed into effect until the chief probation officer has certified to the committing court that the youth correctional center has adequate facilities to provide rehabilitative treatment for the offender.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1854. Section 1854.

While under commitment to the youth correctional center, the offender is subject to the control of the chief probation officer. The offender may be confined to the center at all times; he may be released for brief periods to work, attend school, or engage in educational or recreational pursuits; or he may be allowed to live in the community and return to the center for specific services as directed by the chief probation officer.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1855. Section 1855.

Earnings of offenders who reside in the center and work in the community shall be collected by the chief probation officer. From such earnings the chief probation officer may pay the offender’s board and personal expenses and such administrative costs as are allocable to him. Any balance may be paid periodically to the offender as deemed appropriate by the chief probation officer. Upon the offender’s release from juvenile court wardship or termination of his probation, all funds credited to his account shall be paid to him.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1856. Section 1856.

When in the opinion of the chief probation officer an offender appears to be unamenable to the program of the youth correctional center, he shall be returned to the committing court for further disposition. The court shall then make an alternative disposition.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1857. Section 1857.

The Board of Corrections shall adopt and prescribe the minimum standards of construction, operation, programs of education or rehabilitative training or treatment, and qualifications of personnel for youth correctional centers established pursuant to this article. No county establishing or conducting such a youth correctional center shall be entitled to receive any state funds provided for in this article unless and until the minimum standards and qualifications referred to in this section are complied with by such county.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1858. Section 1858.

No youth correctional center established pursuant to this article shall be planned to accommodate more than 350 youths under supervision at any one time. Any youth correctional center that consistently exceeds this capacity shall be ineligible to receive subsidy funds.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1859. Section 1859.

Where any such youth correctional center is established, and where the minimum standards and qualifications provided for in Section 1857 have been complied with by the county, the State of California through the Youth Authority, out of any money appropriated for this purpose, shall reimburse the county at the rate of two hundred dollars ($200) per month per person being supervised by the youth correctional center during the first six months of such person’s first-time participation in the center program. This amount shall be adjusted annually, upward or downward, by the Director of Finance in accordance with the proportionate increase or decrease in per capita costs for supervising Youth Authority wards in institutions and on parole. Whenever a claim made by a county pursuant to this section covering a prior fiscal year is found to have been in error, adjustment may be made on a current claim without necessity of applying the adjustment to the appropriation for the prior fiscal year.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1860. Section 1860.

(a) From any state moneys made available to it for that purpose, the Youth Authority shall share in the cost pursuant to this article of the construction of youth correctional centers established by counties which apply therefor. (b) “Construction” as used in this section includes construction of new buildings and acquisition of existing buildings and initial equipment of any such buildings, and, to the extent provided for in regulations adopted by the Department of the Youth Authority, remodeling of existing buildings owned by the county, to serve as a youth correctional center, and initial equipment thereof. “Construction” also includes payments made by a county under any lease-purchase agreement or similar arrangement authorized by law and payments for the necessary repair or improvements of property which is leased from the federal government or other public entity without cost to the county for a term of not less than 10 years. It does not include architects’ fees or the cost of land acquisition. (c) The amount of state assistance which shall be provided to any county shall not exceed 50 percent of the project cost approved by the Youth Authority and in no event shall it exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000) per offender the program is designed to accommodate. (d) Application for state assistance for construction funds under this article shall be made to the Youth Authority in the manner and form prescribed by the Youth Authority, and the Youth Authority shall prescribe the time and manner of payment of state assistance, if granted.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 1861. Section 1861.

The Department of the Youth Authority shall report to the Legislature no later than the fifth legislative day of the 1974 Regular Session on the experiences and the results under the provisions of this article. Pending review by the Legislature of such report, the state shall not participate financially in the establishment of more than four youth correctional centers.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026