By C1 Staff
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif. — The San Bernardino County Probation Department is providing outreach services to the county’s homeless by adding three homeless services probation officers.
The Herald News reports that a study in 2013 concluded that 22 percent of the county’s total homeless population were released from jail or prison in the past 12 months, highlighting a need for the probation department to reach out and offer assistance with basic necessities.
They specialize in providing intervention and prevention services. The officers contact the homeless on the street, at local parks or at one of the homeless encampments scattered throughout the county.
Whether the homeless are on probation or not, they are provided with a variety of basic necessities, such as personal hygiene kits, blankets, ponchos, clothing, food items and water.
Juveniles detained in department detention facilities knit blankets that the probation officers hand out to the homeless.
Though the majority in the encampments were found to not be on probation, the department believes a person who is homeless but has the basic necessities for survival has a greater likelihood of remaining law abiding.