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146
Riverside Youth Court, and the Mental Health Intervention and Response Program
(34-43). These proactive community and problem-oriented policing programs have
been central to the Riverside police reform effort.
Two of the more innovative programs are the Riverside Youth Court and the
Mental Health Intervention and Response Program. The Riverside Youth Court is an
early intervention program for first-time misdemeanor offenders between the ages of
10 and 17. Youth who admit to breaking the law are given a second chance. Their
case is presided over by an adult judge in a real courtroom, but the jury, prosecutors,
defense attorneys, court clerks, and bailiffs are all youth. The juries of young people
decide the sentence. Central to the Youth Court mission is to establish a fair and
restorative sentence for the juvenile respondent. Respondents are required to serve
on a future jury, and complete one or more of the following: community service,
letters of apology, essays, educational workshops, counseling, restitution, drug
testing, jail tour, curfew restrictions, behavior contract, and other creative
dispositions (RPD 2007, 42-43; Riverside Youth Court 2008).
The RPD Mental Health Intervention and Response Program is a
collaborative effort between the department, the City, homeless advocacy groups, the
Riverside County Regional Medical Center Psychiatric Division, the Riverside
County Department of Mental Health, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness
(NAMI). The program was developed in response to increasing numbers of police
encounters with mentally ill homeless persons, including officer-involved shootings
and other use of force incidents. RPD officers receive training from mental health
Object Description
| Title | Policing accountability: an empirical investigation of state-sponsored police reform in Riverside, California |
| Author | Gomez, Jose Adolfo |
| Author email | jagclash@yahoo.com; jgomez@treasurer.ca.gov |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Political Science |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-01 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 13 Oct. 2010. |
| Date published | 2010-10-13 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Renteln, Alison Dundes |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Newland, Chester A. Wong, Janelle S. |
| Abstract | The police have the ability to detain, arrest, and use force when necessary. Police accountability is thus of paramount concern to the public. Numerous examples of police misconduct, including cases of excessive force, brutality, and corruption, appear regularly via the news media. These incidents often evidence systemic organizational problems in law enforcement agencies. Scholars have observed that attempts at police reform have placed too much emphasis on individuals behaving badly, rather than on the systemic problems of the police department.; Beginning in the second half of the 1990s, federal and state Attorneys General began employing institutional reform litigation, in the form of consent decrees, to reform law enforcement agencies and enhance police accountability. The consent decrees were crafted to address systemic organizational dysfunction in local police departments. The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) conducted most of these reform interventions. However, a notable exception was the settlement agreement between the Attorney General of the State of California and the City of Riverside, California.; There has been little research on the efficacy of these efforts to rehabilitate law enforcement agencies. This analysis is a case study of the effectiveness of the institutional reform intervention by the California Attorney General into the Riverside Police Department (RPD). The detailed examination revealed that the intervention produced constructive changes in the way the RPD conducts its business. The RPD became more professional, effective, transparent and accountable as it implemented the provisions of the consent decree, demonstrating that institutional reform litigation can result in meaningful police reform. The shadow of the law was ever present, encouraging an ethos of cooperation and exerting pressure for meaningful organizational change. The Riverside experience suggests that a facilitative oversight style produces constructive collaboration between the parties, improving the likelihood of durable police reform. Moreover, consent decrees to correct systemic police misconduct should not be the exclusive purview of the USDOJ. State Attorneys General can effectively initiate police reform and in some cases state intervention is a more appropriate alternative. |
| Keyword | institutional reform; police reform; police accountability; state attorney's general; police misconduct; organizational change; consent decrees |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Riverside |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Coverage date | 1993/2008 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1664 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Gomez, Jose Adolfo |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Gomez-2358 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume29/etd-Gomez-2358.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 158 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 146 Riverside Youth Court, and the Mental Health Intervention and Response Program (34-43). These proactive community and problem-oriented policing programs have been central to the Riverside police reform effort. Two of the more innovative programs are the Riverside Youth Court and the Mental Health Intervention and Response Program. The Riverside Youth Court is an early intervention program for first-time misdemeanor offenders between the ages of 10 and 17. Youth who admit to breaking the law are given a second chance. Their case is presided over by an adult judge in a real courtroom, but the jury, prosecutors, defense attorneys, court clerks, and bailiffs are all youth. The juries of young people decide the sentence. Central to the Youth Court mission is to establish a fair and restorative sentence for the juvenile respondent. Respondents are required to serve on a future jury, and complete one or more of the following: community service, letters of apology, essays, educational workshops, counseling, restitution, drug testing, jail tour, curfew restrictions, behavior contract, and other creative dispositions (RPD 2007, 42-43; Riverside Youth Court 2008). The RPD Mental Health Intervention and Response Program is a collaborative effort between the department, the City, homeless advocacy groups, the Riverside County Regional Medical Center Psychiatric Division, the Riverside County Department of Mental Health, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). The program was developed in response to increasing numbers of police encounters with mentally ill homeless persons, including officer-involved shootings and other use of force incidents. RPD officers receive training from mental health |
