The Kern County Probation Department has had supervised juvenile workers doing community service at Bakersfield College for over 10 years, according to Bob Day, director of Maintenance and Operations.

He said the workers are usually on campus twice a week and mainly work in the stadium area. They come all year except in the cold or rainy weather.

The workers wear orange suits and are mostly male, but co-ed work gangs have been on campus at times, according to Day.

Those who are in the facility don’t work on the outside. The workers at BC come from the Juvenile Work Program.

There are almost 600 juveniles in the program that are from Kern County. They are from surrounding areas such as Shafter, Delano and Bakersfield, according to group counselor Robert Maidment. They are not working because they have done serious crimes. They are doing court ordered community service due to minor violations.

“They are here from speeding to assault,” said Maidment.

“They are usually first time offenders.”

The only problem BC has had with any of the workers on campus is when they have taken the sprinklers apart, according to Day.

“They are low risk, they’re not hardcore criminals,” Day said.

“They really don’t pose any kind of threat to the campus or the students.”

It is helpful having the juveniles come to BC to do community service because they take care of minor things on campus on a weekly basis, according to Day.

“By having the community workers help, it gives our guys more time to do crucial things,” Day said.

After a football game, the stadium is cleaned up by the juveniles, which helps save the college several hundred dollars a game, according to Tim Carroll, site operations coordinator.

“The grounds person really appreciates their help,” Carroll said.