State awards $7 million to Santa Cruz County justice programs

The state has awarded Santa Cruz County a total of $7 million in two new grants to help criminal justice diversion programs. The programs include drug and alcohol treatment and those aiming to reduce youth racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

The Coordinated Access for Empowering Success (CAFES) project will get $6 million. The county says the program will work to improve integration and courts with community services to keep low-level offenders out of jails and prisons. They hope the program will prevent recidivism by addressing the root cause of the crimes.

CAFES will work towards that by finding caseworkers in local courts who can connect people to services through the Santa Cruz County Probation Department’s Service Center in an effort to create more pathways out of the justice system. It will also provide funding to study establishing a new neighborhood court program.

Santa Cruz County Probation Chief Fernando Giraldo says CAFES will work toward three shifts in the local justice system.

“First is a shift from distributed services to a cohesive system with services delivered through a central hub,” Giraldo says, “Second is a shift from reaction to prevention, including looking at root causes through a public health lens. The third shift is expanding the criminal justice focus to include overall community health and well-being.”

CAFES will give treatment, case management and housing support. Data shows that within Santa Cruz County, 60% of jail bookings are drug- or alcohol-related and 50% of people leaving the justice system do not have access to stable housing.

The other $1 million will go to Community Reclaiming Youth Justice. It is a program in southern Santa Cruz County that works to keep disadvantaged Latino youth out of the justice system and reduce youth justice racial disparities. The program is intended to work with youth and families to address the factors that lead to entry into the justice system.

Giraldo says Community Reclaiming Youth Justice will accomplish that goal through youth leadership development, addressing past trauma, improving performance at school and improving social competencies.

Funding for both programs was provided by the California Board of State and Community Corrections.