The juvenile facility is required to provide all youth with an age and developmentally appropriate orientation that includes an explanation and a copy of their rights and responsibilities. The facility is also required to address youth’s questions and concerns. The OYCR Ombudsperson can also help educate you on your rights. 

Copies of the Youth Bill of Rights in English, Spanish, and other languages will be provided to parents and guardians in orientation packets. They will also be made available in the visiting areas of juvenile justice facilities. Parents and anyone from the public can contact the Ombudsperson to request free copies of the Youth Bill of Rights for youth in California juvenile justice facilities.

There are a few options if you think your rights (or a youth’s rights) are being violated. Write down as much information as you can remember (most youth in facilities do not have access to internet) and file a grievance at the juvenile justice facility, share the concern with the youth’s attorney, or contact the OYCR Ombudsperson, and try to remember the following info:

• What happened?
• Where did it happen?
• When did it happen?
• Who was involved?
• What rights were violated?

Contact the OYCR Ombudsperson by calling 1(844) 402-1880 or emailing OYCRombuds@chhs.ca.gov. You can also file a grievance with the juvenile facility and/or contact your attorney, local ombudspersons, and other advocates regarding conditions of confinement or violations of rights.

The Ombudsperson within the Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) has the authority to investigate complaints from youth, families, staff, and others about harmful conditions or practices and violations of laws and regulations in any juvenile facility in the state of California. The Ombudsperson’s authority is set out in Welfare and Institutions Code sections 2200, 2200.2, 2200.5, and 2200.7. 

We have a confidentiality obligation to never disclose who the person is that contacted us to make the complaint. If the Ombudsperson chooses to investigate your concerns, they may need to release certain information in the process of conducting their duties, such as asking to review certain records or interview youth in a facility. The ombudsperson will not give records to anyone and anything you say to the Ombudsperson during interviews will be confidential.

The Ombudsperson can investigate complaints from youth, families, staff, and others about harmful conditions or practices, violations of laws and regulations governing facilities, and circumstances presenting an emergency situation in juvenile justice facilities.

The complaint intake is conducted and passed on to the Ombudsperson (or acting Ombudsperson) to review the information and make a determination if they will investigate this concern or refer you to another agency to address your concerns. The Ombudsperson or their staff will contact you to let you know if your complaint is being investigated, and will keep you updated on the progress of the case as well as the outcome. 

• They can choose whether or not to investigate concerns or refer them to other places to be addressed.

• They can help you understand different ways you can address your concerns.

• They can meet and communicate with a youth privately

• They can interview people, access records, and visit juvenile justice facilities.

• They can make recommendations to the Chief Probation Officer to resolve the complaint.

• They can make reports to the legislature and others about the types of complaints they get, problems within the juvenile justice system, and recommendations for improving the system.

   

• They cannot change court orders.

• They cannot investigate complaints about judges and attorneys.

• They cannot provide legal advice.

• They cannot investigate or fire staff, but if there is a concern with a staff or probation officer, this will be reported to the appropriate personnel office to be addressed.

The hotline begins with a prerecorded messages and then is transferred to a staff person. If we are on another call they will be asked to wait or can leave a message for a call back.

You can call during state Business Hours, 8:00am-5:00pm

Messages can be left after hours and upon the staff logging back into the phone system they will return calls to the callers.

Yes, but this does pose some challenges. In order for the office to meet the statutory obligations to inform a complainant of the decision to investigate or if the complaint is declined, the reasoning for that determination, and to meet the statutory need to do follow up with the complainant and to notify them of the outcome of the investigation, we will need to be able to contact them.

Yes. The intake staff will need to know the facility and what the issues are and will ask the complainant for all the relevant details to determine the approach the best approach to attempt to resolve the problem.

Youth have the right to make complaints to the OYCR Ombudsperson without fear of retaliation. OYCR takes seriously any allegations of retaliation. At the end of each call and when we interview youth we explain their right to be free of retaliation and to contact us and their attorney if they are experiencing retaliation. Retaliation will form the basis for a new complaint and will be investigated.

The OYCR Ombuds process is separate from the facility grievance process. However, if we are aware that a facility grievance has been made, we will ask for those records as part of an investigation when it is relevant to the complaint.

Your rights are summarized in the Youth Bill of Rights (English, Español). If you have questions about your rights, you can call the OYCR Ombudsperson hotline. You can also ask your attorney.