The ACLU has filed a class-action lawsuit challenging Riverside County’s “informal” probation program for kids who commit low-level offenses and kids deemed “at risk” of future offenses.
The California county’s “Youth Accountability Team” (YAT) is “astonishingly punitive and ineffective,” according to the complaint, and ensnares approximately 400 kids each year, locking them into a six-month probation term for being “defiant” or tardy, and for swearing, giving into peer pressure and exhibiting other behaviors common among children.
