(a) Any reference to the Department of the Youth Authority, the Division of Juvenile Facilities, or the Division of Juvenile Justice in this or any other code refers to the Department of Youth and Community Restoration.

(b) The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(1) The purpose of the Department of Youth and Community Restoration is to protect society from the consequences of criminal activity by providing for the secure placement of youth, and to effectively and efficiently operate and manage facilities housing youthful offenders under the jurisdiction of the department, consistent with the purposes set forth in Section 1700. The purpose of the Department of Youth and Community Restoration is also to provide comprehensive education, training, treatment, and rehabilitative services to youthful offenders under the jurisdiction of the department, that are designed to promote community restoration, family ties, and victim restoration, and to produce youth who become law-abiding and productive members of society, consistent with the purposes set forth in Section 202.

(2) The Department of Youth and Community Restoration shall embrace a vision wherein the youth under its care transition successfully into adulthood, desist from criminal behavior, and become thriving and engaged members of their communities.

(3) It is the mission of the Department of Youth and Community Restoration to help youth who have hurt people, and have been hurt themselves, return safely to the community and become responsible and successful adults. The department shall employ the following strategies to support this mission:

(A) Build and practice the values of a safe and caring community within the Department of Youth and Community Restoration, engaging all members, including staff, youth, families, volunteers, and visitors in fulfilling its mission.

(B) Develop a fully prepared and continually supported staff that is healthy, educated, and trained to fulfill their unique and vital roles in service to the department’s mission.

(C) Offer treatment to help youth heal from past experience and change the thinking, beliefs, and behaviors that lead to hurting themselves and others.

(D) Create opportunities for youth to understand and restore the harms caused by their actions.

(E) Provide education, training, and life experience for youth to imagine, aspire, and build a pathway to a successful life.

(F) Bring people with resources, relationships, expertise, and personal experience into the Department of Youth and Community Restoration to inspire and motivate youth, and to build a caring community that provides opportunities and support for their reentry and honorable discharge.

(c) This section shall become operative July 1, 2020.

(Repealed (in Sec. 57) and added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 25, Sec. 58. (SB 94) Effective June 27, 2019. Section operative July 1, 2020, by its own provisions.)