Youth Offender Program Camp Pilot Program.

Assembly Member Elhawary’s measure weaves the Youth Offender Program Camp concept directly into permanent law and grants the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation discretion to broaden participation across California’s Conservation Camps, situating the program within the state’s conservation camp network.

The bill cements the program’s origin and purpose by recounting its August 2023 launch at Growlersburg Conservation Camp in Georgetown for incarcerated youth aged 18 to 25 with a Level III classification or a Violent Administrative Determinant, and its August 2024 expansion to Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp. It specifies the Legislature’s intent to make the pilot program permanent and authorizes expansion to some or all California Conservation Camps, as defined by the broader public resources framework, without restating all eligibility criteria beyond the pilot’s framework.

Implementation rests with the Secretary’s oversight, who may extend the program to additional camps at discretion, aligning with existing definitions of Conservation Camps. The measure does not create new regulatory requirements beyond codifying permanence and expansion authority, and it leaves the broader regulatory pathway and detailed program rules to CDCR regulations or policy implementing the ongoing program. The bill preserves the target participant profile and case-by-case placement decisions described in the pilot, while leaving governance, timing of expansion, and funding decisions to ongoing administrative and budget processes.