The lawsuit alleges that the program violates the kids’ constitutional rights.
In 2001, Riverside County established what is known as the Youth Accountability Team (YAT). According to the County, YAT is a beneficial diversion program for kids who have either committed low-level offenses or who may appear to be headed towards involvement with the juvenile justice system.
Yet according to a recent lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Center for Youth Law and a private law firm, YAT is a “astonishingly punitive and ineffective” program that is used to violate the participants’ constitutional rights. This includes fingerprinting and photographing the kids, searching their person and their homes, and wiretapping their phones — all without getting a warrant.
According to a Riverside criminal defense attorney, the YAT program is a partnership between the Riverside Probation Department, the Riverside Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office, the Riverside Unified School District and the Wiley Center for Speech and Language Development. Through this program, parents, school administrations and law enforcement officers can refer children to the program for committing minor crimes or for simply being “at risk for delinquent behavior.” Children as young as first grade have been referred to the program. To qualify under the “at risk” criteria, children can be as young as 12, and must exhibit two of the following criteria: substance abuse, poor academics, family conflict, school discipline problems, mental health issues, truancy, gang association, and/or defiance.
If a child if found to be eligible for YAT, he or she is placed on a contract that may include “intensive probation supervision, school and home visits, drug testing, referrals to community resources, community service, jail tour, and educational programming or activities.” The terms of probation supervision includes adhering to curfews and agreeing to searches of their person and home. Importantly, in many cases, the children in these programs have never been convicted of a crime — or if they have been convicted of a crime, it is only a minor crime. According to the ACLU lawsuit, one child was referred to the YAT program for “pulling the race card.”
Once children are in the YAT program, they are not entitled to legal counsel or an impartial person who is in charge of decision-making. According to the ACLU lawsuit, children and families are not provided with formal notice of what they are charged with or the reason for their referral into the program. Instead, families are often called informally or told at school about the referral. The information that law enforcement gathers on the kids through YAT is kept, even after the terms of YAT have been completed.
Another issue with the YAT program highlighted by the ACLU is that if a child is entered into it, he or she is not eligible for any future diversion program. As an experienced Riverside criminal defense attorney can explain, this means that the child would not be able to take advantage of a drug diversion program in the future, for example, or other alternative sentencing arrangements.
The outcome of the ACLU lawsuit remains uncertain, but it certainly brings up troubling questions about the YAT program in Riverside County. If your child is referred to the YAT program, an experienced Riverside criminal defense attorney can help you determine the best course of action. While there may be benefits to it, there appear to be significant drawbacks, including the loss of constitutional rights and the ability to participate in future diversion programs.
At the Chambers Law Firm, we advocate for our clients at every stage of the process. If your child has gotten in trouble with the law or has been referred to the YAT program, we can help. Contact our firm today at 714-760-4088 or dchambers@clfca.com to schedule a free initial consultation with a Riverside criminal defense attorney.
