Senate leader tours youth camp

State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, toured China Spring Youth Camp and Aurora Pines girls' facility in south Douglas County on Friday.

Horsford is chairman of the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice's Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice, which is touring juvenile facilities throughout the state.

The onsite visit was to learn how the system of juvenile justice works in the state and to get a view of the programs established statewide.

China Spring and Aurora Pines have established successful outcome-based programs that change behavior in the delinquent population.

These gender specific four-to six-month treatment programs hold youth accountable, evaluate individual treatment needs and implement cognitive behavior models to break cycles of negative behavior.

Working with 16 of the 17 judicial jurisdictions in the state (Clark County not included), Camp Director Steve Thaler and his staff work to successful transition of youth back into their communities with the strong foundation necessary to resist risk factors.

The camp provides the following: daily routine and structure; high school education through Douglas County School District's Jacobsen High School; substance abuse treatment through the Nevada Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Agency; cognitive behavior change systems using Thinking for a Change, Girls Circle and Boys Council program; and alternative activities including CHOICES Ropes Course program and daily physical education.

Projected state budget reductions will close up to 100 state commitment beds for juveniles, according to camp officials. They said the reduction would have to be absorbed by regional juvenile probation departments and the youth camps in the north and south.

State and regional judicial jurisdictions rely on the youth camps to provide midlevel intervention programs that produce positive outcomes for 80 percent of juvenile participants, officials said.