Government reformers and youth advocates have long called for California to get out of the business of juvenile corrections.

Now they're backing Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to eliminate the state Division of Juvenile Justice and give counties responsibility for the state's worst young offenders.

Brown wants to eliminate the division in three years. High costs, poor treatment and other shortcomings have made the agency a target of critics.

The juvenile justice transfer would complete a process that started in 2007 of giving counties responsibility for juvenile corrections. Previously, the state incarcerated about 10,000 juveniles.

Now the state has about one-tenth that number of young offenders in custody. They represent the most serious cases murderers, robbers and sex offenders among them.

The Little Hoover Commission, a state agency charged with ferreting out inefficiency in government, called for the elimination of the Division of Juvenile Justice two years ago.

The commission's chairman, Daniel Hancock, said last week that supports Brown's plan.

Local officials know juvenile offenders better than state officials do, and they can better serve their needs for rehabilitation and other things, Hancock said.

The commission came to the same conclusion in a 2008 report, noting that the state was spending the "startling" amount of $250,000 per offender per year.

State officials say they have cut some of those costs, which, they add, were largely the result of a 2004 state court decision that required major changes in what was then the California Youth Authority.

The court ruling required the state to meet standards in six areas, including mental health, medical care, safety and welfare.

Under Brown's proposal, counties would receive the same amount of money per offender as the state spends now, said Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer. The funds would come from an extension of tax and fee increases the governor wants voters to approve this year. Therefore, the state would save $242 million in the next fiscal year.

The state would keep its juvenile offenders currently in custody until they're released, while counties would begin sentencing offenders to local facilities this year.

The proposal has drawn praise from the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland-based civil rights organization and longtime critic of the state's juvenile facilities.

"We really can use that money better at the local level," said Sumayyah Waheed of the center's "Books Not Bars" campaign.

Counties haven't been as receptive.

The Chief Probation Officers of California is opposed to the idea, although the association is open to discussions on changing the juvenile justice system, said executive director Karen Pank.

Counties still need a central place for the state's most troubled youths, and trying to provide the intensive services they need in every county makes no sense, she said.

Probation officials in El Dorado and Placer counties, where very few kids end up in state custody, echo her view.

In Sacramento County, Chief Probation Officer Don Meyer said he has his doubts about whether his department can handle the extra work. The department has sustained deep cuts in recent years and closed two juvenile facilities.

The remaining facility isn't built to hold long-term and violent offenders the type the state now wants to give to the county, he said.