Riverside County's $30 Million Reinvestment in Community to Transform Juvenile Justice

The pro­ba­tion depart­ment in California’s River­side Coun­ty is redefin­ing how pub­lic sys­tems can sup­port young peo­ple. With a $30 mil­lion com­mu­ni­ty rein­vest­ment plan, pro­ba­tion lead­ers are doing more than sim­ply mon­i­tor­ing young peo­ple for their com­pli­ance with rules. They are invest­ing in strate­gies that cen­ter youth devel­op­ment, local ser­vice providers and pub­lic safety.

This shift reflects a grow­ing recog­ni­tion that neigh­bor­hood orga­ni­za­tions are often best equipped to under­stand and address the chal­lenges fac­ing local youth. 

Mov­ing Beyond Surveillance

Tra­di­tion­al juve­nile pro­ba­tion has long cen­tered on restric­tions and mon­i­tor­ing that can per­sist for years. But under the lead­er­ship of Chief Pro­ba­tion Offi­cer Christo­pher H. Wright, River­side Coun­ty is pur­su­ing a new vision — one that embraces account­abil­i­ty through com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­grams and a sys­tem of care that pri­or­i­tizes part­ner­ship and youth well-being.

When Wright assumed lead­er­ship of the pro­ba­tion depart­ment in 2023, it had mil­lions in unused funds from Cal­i­for­ni­a’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Crime Pre­ven­tion Act (JJC­PA). These funds were intend­ed to sup­port pos­i­tive pro­gram­ming for youth under pro­ba­tion super­vi­sion and youth released from juve­nile deten­tion, among oth­ers. ​“Let’s not wait,” said Wright. ​“The com­mu­ni­ty wants change, and they are ask­ing to be a part of it. If we have to tap those reserves to give more to the com­mu­ni­ty because that’s what works for youth, we’ll do it.”

Lay­ing the Ground­work for Change

One of the first steps Wright and his team took was cre­at­ing a space for shared deci­sion-mak­ing. They invit­ed com­mu­ni­ty and coun­ty lead­ers to form a new advi­so­ry com­mit­tee to the Juve­nile Jus­tice Coor­di­nat­ing Coun­cil, which over­sees River­side’s juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem and con­trols JJC­PA spending.

The com­mit­tee’s task: Devel­op a three-year plan to invest $30 mil­lion in com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­grams that sup­port youth, reduce jus­tice-sys­tem involve­ment, and pro­mote well-being.

Ramon Ramos, exec­u­tive direc­tor of The Excep­tion, was appoint­ed to rep­re­sent com­mu­ni­ty inter­ests and chair the com­mit­tee. He launched the CBO Alliance, a non­prof­it that brings local orga­ni­za­tions togeth­er to strength­en their col­lec­tive voice and impact.

“The com­mit­tee gave us a place to raise com­mu­ni­ty con­cerns. As we worked togeth­er, we came to see that the pro­ba­tion depart­ment was seri­ous about trans­for­ma­tion,” Ramos said.

Elisa Judy, River­side Coun­ty’s chief deputy pro­ba­tion offi­cer for juve­nile field ser­vices, called the com­mit­tee ​“a shift from top-down to side-by-side part­ner­ship — sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ties work­ing at the same lev­el to meet shared goals.”

In March 2024, the com­mit­tee pre­sent­ed a plan focused on pre­ven­tion, diver­sion, reen­try, and stream­lined access to care. The plan set the stage for the coun­ty’s com­mu­ni­ty rein­vest­ment strategy.

Nation­al Insights, Local Action

To sharp­en their vision, River­side brought a team to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., in June 2024 to attend the Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Cer­tifi­cate Pro­gram. Host­ed by George­town Uni­ver­si­ty’s Cen­ter for Youth Jus­tice in part­ner­ship with the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, the pro­gram sup­ports juris­dic­tions in imple­ment­ing more effec­tive, youth-cen­tered pro­ba­tion practices.

The expe­ri­ence helped River­side refine its approach, par­tic­u­lar­ly in how it struc­tured its rein­vest­ment strategy.

A New Mod­el for Reinvestment

Lat­er that sum­mer, River­side Coun­ty released requests for pro­pos­als to fund:

• pro­gram eval­u­a­tion by out­side experts;
• sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices for young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies to assist with meet­ing their basic needs and cre­at­ing pos­i­tive, last­ing com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions; and
• com­mu­ni­ty-led diver­sion efforts.

Impor­tant­ly, the coun­ty removed a con­tro­ver­sial $100,000 cap on JJC­PA fund­ing for com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions. The change opened the door for local groups to receive more sub­stan­tial, sus­tain­able support.

In 2025, the pro­ba­tion depart­ment began award­ing funds: 

• Jan­u­ary: $555,000 for evaluation.
• July: $12 mil­lion over three years for sup­port­ive ser­vices at nine orga­ni­za­tions and $8 mil­lion set aside for poten­tial extensions.
• Novem­ber: $10 mil­lion over five years for com­mu­ni­ty-led diver­sion programs. 

“We know that to best serve youth, pro­ba­tion must do our part and let the com­mu­ni­ty do theirs,” said River­side County’s Assis­tant Chief Pro­ba­tion Offi­cer Natal­ie Rivera. ​“Pro­ba­tion should be a short time in a young person’s life. If we can pro­vide a warm hand­off to com­mu­ni­ty part­ners who can sup­port youth over time, they’ll have a bet­ter chance to succeed.”

Look­ing Ahead

River­side Coun­ty’s approach is already serv­ing as a mod­el for oth­er juris­dic­tions. The results are ear­ly, but the col­lab­o­ra­tion is strong and the com­mit­ment is clear.

Chief Wright encour­ages oth­ers to explore sim­i­lar part­ner­ships. ​“What­ev­er the size of your coun­ty, young peo­ple can thrive if pub­lic sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty work togeth­er. We are already see­ing some of the mag­ic here in River­side — and we’re just get­ting started.”