Countywide : Shortstop Program Likely to Get Funded

After a week of behind-the-scenes negotiations, aides to several county supervisors said Monday that a deal appears near to give a highly touted program for juvenile delinquents the money it needs to expand.

Backers of the Shortstop Program had appealed a county advisory group’s decision not to include the program in a grant proposal for next year. The program had asked for money to add a Spanish-language operation to its existing English-language service.

Although details still need to be resolved, supervisors’ aides said Shortstop now is likely to receive at least $40,000 next year.

“We’ve had several offices cooperating on this, and I think there’s no doubt but that they’ll get the money they need for the Spanish-language program,” one aide said.

Shortstop is a privately funded operation that attempts to scare juvenile offenders out of committing serious crimes by shackling them, giving them a taste of a holding cell and lecturing them on the risks of breaking the law.