SHORTSTOP® is a unique juvenile crime diversion program developed in 1980 for juvenile offenders and their families and culturally adapted in 1989 and offered in Spanish. As a cost-effective, comprehensive alternative to prosecution, SHORTSTOP utilizes effective, science-based models for reducing delinquency among youth with incorporated strong restorative justice plans.
SHORTSTOP teaches the offenders to take responsibility for their actions through decision-making strategies designed to result in positive future choices. SHORTSTOP breaks the cycle that turns young people into repeat offenders by using three simple concepts: reach youth early; involve the parents; and use a graphic courtroom setting with legal professionals and actual prisoners.
Additionally, through linkages with community partnerships, SHORTSTOP provides comprehensive wrap around services. SHORTSTOP is part of a system reform approach that collaborates with key justice stakeholders on Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative efforts in Orange County.
Juvenile offenders, 11-17 and their parents participate in several sessions held at night in a courtroom where volunteer attorneys, legal professionals and parolees dramatically present the "legal facts of life". SHORTSTOP teaches:
Consequences of criminal behavior
Value of freedom
Accountability for actions
Peer pressure
Family communication/
conflict resolution
Awareness of drugs, alcohol, gangs
& victims
Positive future choices
Case Management & Counseling
Pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975,
OCBF does not discriminate in the provision of services on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability or age.
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