BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Doing more with less, that's the new mantra of county government as the Board of Supervisors is expecting less and less money the next year or two. So, the board is looking for programs that streamline resources, which is something the probation department began to implement last year.

The program is called PACT, or Positive Achievement Change Tool, it's a way to assess juvenile offenders risk of recidivism and what they need to help change their behavior.

The Kern County Probation Department started using it in June and officials say it will make the department more efficient as the program looks to focus the probation department's resources on the juveniles that need the most attention.

"It will help us determine which kids really need to be locked up, which ones are at the highest risk of re-offending and it will also help us focus on those kids," said David Kuge, Chief Deputy Probation Officer. "And we will actively supervise the high and moderate risk kids."

By the end of the year, all of the roughly 2,800 juvenile offenders will be assessed, Of the nearly 2,000 assessed so far, 63-percent were determined to be low or moderate risk and 36-percent high risk.

That means probation officers, which currently have between 80 and 100 cases each can reduce their number of high risk cases to ideally around 35 to 40.

"Smaller case loads will allow officers to put more effort into those kids," Kuge said.

That will allow other officers to increase their case loads with just low risk offenders. Offenders that may be kept from the formal criminal justice system.

"It doesn't mean they're getting off, it doesn't mean they're not going to be punished," Mike Maggard, 3rd District Supervisor, said. "All of that is still going to happen, but if we treat them all the same, what we've discovered is that some of them that might be able to escape that life of crime ... and this appears to be a tool that might help us change that."

Studies show the recidivism rate in low risk juveniles that are left alone is 16-percent, but that rate more than doubles to 40-percent if they're treated like high risk offenders.

"We can make kids worse by bringing them into the juvenile justice system," Kuge said.

PACT also identifies why a juvenile offends. Anti-social peers, alcohol-substance abuse and dysfunctional family relations are the top three reasons in the county according to the probation department. And knowing that allows probation to provide better and more specific services.

"Instead of giving every kid substance abuse, we'll only send the ones that actually need it," Kuge said.

Probation is also working on a similar adult program called STRONG.

Both programs are used widely across the country and here in California, where 20 other counties are using the system and another 12 to 15 are considering it.

Maggard says the board is looking to find more inventive programs like this to, again, achieve more with less.