The Santa Clarita City Council unanimously voted Tuesday, during the first in-person Santa Clarita City Council meeting since the onset of the pandemic, in opposition of the decision from the County’s subcommittee to send juvenile offenders to detention camps located in Saugus.

With over 100 Santa Clarita residents taking to City Hall Tuesday to express their thoughts, Council members directed city staff to draft a letter acknowledging community concerns of the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council’s Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant (JJRBG) that proposed relocation to Saugus.

Unanimously voted for by the City Council, the City’s letter is expected to urge the County to identify location alternatives for juvenile offenders as well as invite the JJRBG subcommittee to tour the sites before holding a public hearing in Santa Clarita, according to the City Council.

“The county is committed to doing a better job in justice reform, focused on our youth,” said Stephanie English, a representative for Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “We are also committed to the rights of victims and adhering to the public safety policy as needed. These goals are not mutually exclusive.”

While committed to justice reform and justice for victims, Barger is opposed to the JJRBG subcommittee’s chosen locations in Saugus as “it is not the appropriate facility or the appropriate location.”

Barger is instead offering a motion to go before the board on July 13 to reevaluate the issue and reinvestigate other opportunities for the project, according to English.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) Subcommittee recommended a plan that would place juvenile offenders in Santa Clarita for the long-term without discussing the proposal with the City of Santa Clarita.

The DJJ’s plan would have Camp Joseph Scott and Camp Kenyon Scudder, which are near residential areas in Saugus, serve as the long-term facilities housing the county’s male youth offenders once renovations are completed in the two facilities.

The offenders overseen by the DJJ consist of people between 12 and 25 years old who have committed serious crimes including rape, murder, arson and robbery, according to the City of Santa Clarita.

The Santa Clarita City Council had not been informed of the County’s plan to begin the project. Word of the proposed inmate relocation had instead simultaneously spread to the Councilmembers and Santa Clarita residents via the NextDoor app, according to Councilmember Jason Gibbs.

“The lack of outreach, input and thought to the residents of Saugus and all of Santa Clarita when it comes to housing juveniles who commit serious crimes is extremely disappointing,” Gibbs said upon hearing about the proposal. “Modifying a facility to house criminals that have been convicted of rape, arson and even murder, so close to residential homes is not only inappropriate, but a disservice to the safety and family-first environment people have come to enjoy and expect from Santa Clarita.”

Participants of the meeting travelled from various parts of L.A. County to speak on the matter, including the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) who organized a group of formerly juvenile offenders to share their childhood stories that lead up to how they became considered “monsters.”

“Many of our peers come from underrepresented communities and a lot of our actions were as a result of our traumatic events that we had encountered in our homes and communities,” said Eden Madrid, a youth advocate with ARC. “We cannot just discard our youth as a result of our traumatic events. We cannot deem monsters without giving them the benefit of the doubt.”

More than ten formerly incarcerated youths from ARC discussed how the relocation to Saugus should be considered an opportunity to make “a justice system that actually makes (youth) whole, ” according to Executive Director Sam Lewis of ARC, who had been previously incarcerated for a quarter of a century.

“No one talks about how we become broken. As a teenager, I was shot, stabbed and beaten up,” Lewis said. “Many of our youth never had a first chance. They come out of communities that are under-resourced,  schools that are horrible and abusive households — then they make horrible choices and what do we do as a society? We throw them away.”

Those in opposition to the project acknowledged the strength in these men that turned their lives around for the better, but argued that Santa Clarita is not equipped to house the project.

“The criminal justice system needs to be reformulated, but that is a discussion for another time and another day,” said Karen Whitman, a member of law enforcement for the past 27 years. “We’re talking about putting juvenile offenders, the most serious of which, in our backyard without having an opportunity to discuss how this is going to affect our quality of life.”

Officials with L.A. County Probation Officers Union also commended their character changes and rehabilitation, but urged the audience to remember the victims who have suffered at the hands of youth offenders, according to officials with the Union.

“We have victims,” Eric Walton, the vice president of all juvenile halls across L.A. County, said during the meeting.  “When you see parents who are completely frustrated, who have been beaten up in their own homes… we are facing situations where young people are allowed to assault and destroy county property with impunity.”

To hear more from the meeting, click here.

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