While I certainly applaud this new program, I believe that the R-G's gushing editorial is rather misleading. I believe that it has been many years since any significant number of low-level offenders, as referred to in the editorial, have been prosecuted in juvenile court, let alone held in detention. The reason is simple to understand; money. With the county supplying very limited funding, both to the juvenile department and the DA's office, the focus has been on juveniles engaged in much higher level criminal activity. This, of course, makes sense when there are limited resources. 

So, while this new program may provide some additional resources to deal with low-level offenders, people should not expect that it is going to save any appreciable amount of money. Of course the most important question is whether this will have any demonstrative impact on recitivism. Designed properly, the program may provide the answer in a few years.