UC Irvine psychological science professor Elizabeth Cauffman and Judge Maria Hernandez worked together on juvenile justice reform before founding the Orange County Young Adult Court (YAC). Then, in 2018, Hernandez was appointed the presiding judge of the criminal court.
“I was like, ‘You can’t leave the kids,’” Cauffman told New University. “And we realized, well, she still had kids 18 to 25. And we sat down over a cocktail napkin and sketched out an idea and wrote a grant.”
Founded in 2018, the YAC is a two-year program where men aged 18 to 25 who have committed a low-level felony may enter and leave with a clear record upon completion. It is a partnership between UCI, the Orange County Superior Court, the probation department, the public defender’s office, the district attorney’s office and the Orangewood Foundation.
Once a person turns 18, they are no longer eligible for juvenile court — which provides rehabilitation services — despite not yet being fully developed cognitively. According to the National Institute of Health, the brain does not fully develop until age 25. Instead, young adults are detained with adults in a regular criminal court, held to the same sentencing standards and subject to the collateral consequences of having a felony listed in the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences.
In addition to legal consequences, a person with a felony on their record often has difficulty obtaining housing, employment, education and professional licensure. These factors contribute to high recidivism rates among previously incarcerated individuals — making it more likely they will commit another offense.
This, Cauffman said, is unfair to young men who get caught up in petty crime. In California, stealing anything worth $950 or more is considered a felony, according to Cauffman.
The YAC aims to help transitional-aged youth reintegrate into society after a conviction and reduce the likelihood of recidivism. The program includes a research component — led by Cauffman — that measures its effectiveness in helping the participants achieve their goals. The Young Adult Court study is part of UCI’s Development, Disorder, and Delinquency Lab. A team of undergraduate research assistants tracks the progress of the court’s participants.
“This is an approach to try to do something different in the criminal justice system — to show the criminal justice system that they’re not adults, and that if we maybe treat them differently with a more developmentally appropriate approach,” Cauffman said.
Preliminary evidence, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests that the program works. Interviews conducted by the lab with current and former participants reveal that 100% of graduates are housed, and many have stopped using hard drugs, obtained an education and have avoided commiting crime.
To be eligible for the court, a potential participant must not have been charged with a felony that resulted in “any great bodily injury” and must be a male resident of Orange County. The individual’s public defender makes this assessment in collaboration with the district attorney. If they qualify, they must be willing to plead guilty and agree to the program’s requirements — which include committing to personal goals and attending regular meetings with an assigned probation officer. Participation is then randomly decided — “very much like within a randomized controlled trial in a medical study,” according to Cauffman.
Unselected individuals are the study’s control group. Undergraduate research assistants interview both groups during and after the two-year program.
Fourth-year psychological science student Angeleia Do said her interactions with participants have given her perspective on the circumstances of convicted adolescents.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, they’re just criminals,’ but that’s not really the case. With this work we get to interview them and really get some other stories,” Do told New University. “But not often are you going to see the other side of things where you’re learning their entire story and their reasons why they may be involved in certain things.”
Many of the men that Do interviews enter the program without housing, cellphones or transportation. Some are involved in gangs. When Do speaks to them months or years after they graduate, she asks about nearly all aspects of their lives — from living arrangements and employment to mental health and family life. Their answers — unlike many from the control group — usually indicate successful integration into the community, less substance abuse and virtually no recidivism.
Throughout the program, case managers, probation officers, therapists and legal practitioners build individual relationships with their assigned participants and tailor services to their needs.
According to Hernandez, these relationships are often key to the men’s success. Because of disproportionate arrests and sentencing that target young men of color, many are skeptical of the program at first. She shared the story of one YAC graduate, Abraham, who is now a peer advisor for the program.
“So when people kept saying, ‘We’re here to help you, we’re here to support you, we’re here to help you become successful,’ he had real questions about that. And we’ve learned from subsequent participants that that is a common feeling — that it seems too good to be true, that these people are truly here to want to help me,” Hernandez told New University.
Hernandez said that the program emphasizes trust because participants often fell out during the first six months.
“So what we were seeing — and it’s very consistent with what we see in general with a population that’s even on supervised probation — is you really need to intervene with a lot of interactions and [build] that rapport and that trust,” Hernandez said.
Francisco Martinez, the court’s first case manager, described his approach to gaining the trust of the men he worked with as “being human with them.”
“Coming in, I’m already part of the [justice] system, right?” Martinez told New University. “There is already a power dynamic. So there might be some intimidation. And at the end of the day, my goal is to make this as safe as possible for them so they can build that trust with me.”
At the beginning of the program, participants’ immediate needs are met through a method called Quick Engagement Intervention, which Martinez said helps him build rapport.
Aside from immediate support, the court provides the men with resources — clothing, transportation and career preparation — to help them reach their goals. These investments are often necessary for reentry into the community, but Cauffman said the justice system has not taken them into account. Expecting previously incarcerated youth to establish stable livelihoods without such resources, she said, is unrealistic and sets them up for failure.
“People say, ‘Ok, well, apply for a job.’ That’s a very white picket fence, elitist kind of thing. What do you mean you want to apply for a job? They’ve never written a resume,” Cauffman said. “It’s like me saying, ‘Ok, by the end of the week, if you don’t get to the moon, I’m gonna put you back in jail.’ That’s literally what we set young people up for — who go get a job. We might as well have asked them to go to the moon.”
Mariam Farag is a Features Staff Writer. She can be reached at msfarag@uci.edu.
Edited by Jaheem Conley