Youth Lockup

Cracking down on crack ramped up the War on Drugs in the 1980s, and it didn’t matter if you were an adult using crack or a kid; tough on crime was tough on crime. That, of course, led to a surge of juvenile offenders right here in Los Angeles in the ‘80s and ‘90s. But juvenile arrests have since plummeted in L.A. County. A new county audit, however, says that taxpayers are still paying for the same levels of staffing and facilities, and the cost is up to about $233,000 per juvenile offender every year.