In re Jose R. CA2/7

DISCUSSION

A. Juvenile Justice Realignment and Sentencing “Until recently, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) was ‘the state’s most restrictive placement for its most severe juvenile offenders . . . .’” (In re M.B. (2024) 99 Cal.App.5th 435, 448 (M.B.).) In 2020 and 2021 the Legislature passed a series of bills aimed at “juvenile justice realignment,” with the purpose “to ensure that justice-involved youth are closer to their families and communities and receive age-appropriate treatment” and “to establish a separate dispositional track for higher-need youth.” (Sen. Bill No. 823 (2019-2020 Reg. Sess.) (Stats. 2020, ch. 337, §§ 1, 30); see Sen. Bill No. 92 (2021-2022 Reg. Sess.) (Stats. 2021, ch. 18) (Sen. Bill 92) [requiring, among other things, for counties to establish SYTF’s]).

3 As part of realignment, the Legislature transferred responsibility for minors who have been adjudged wards of the court, and who would have been committed to DJJ, to county governments. (§ 736.5, subd. (a).) Effective July 1, 2021, with narrow exceptions, minors would no longer be committed to DJJ (id., subd. (b)), and DJJ was required to close on…