Senate bills passed in 2016 and 2018 allowed several California counties to pilot a program for transition-age youth (TAY) that uses a “deferred entry of judgment” sentencing approach. Upon a participant’s successful completion of a TAY program, the court will dismiss the charge(s) associated with this sentence. Passage of the legislation was driven by research suggesting that young adults may better benefit from rehabilitative approaches than punitive approaches. The legislation requires an evaluation of the pilot programs’ effectiveness, which was provided by Evident Change. This is the first of two evaluation reports that Evident Change will produce about the TAY pilot program.
