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For
Detained Youth, Horrors in California
By
Patrick Boyle
The
infamous California Youth Authority (CYA) has again been exposed
as a virtual torture chamber for convicted youth, but this
time advocates for kids believe the situation will improve.
That's
because of scathing reports that say detained juveniles are
routinely locked in cages, are overmedicated and actually
come out in worse mental health than when they went in. State
officials have vowed to make changes at CYA facilities, and
change actually seems likely, as the reports were produced
for the state attorney general because of a lawsuit against
the state.
"I
expect to get a consent decree out of this in the near future,"
said Donald Specter, an attorney for the Prison Law Office,
a nonprofit that is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Reports
about horrible conditions in juvenile detention are nothing
new. But juvenile justice experts such as John O'Toole, director
of the Oakland-based National Center for Youth Law, expect
these reports to show the value of litigation in forcing reforms.
The
CYA holds about 4,400 young people up to age 25 who have been
sentenced for serious and violent crimes.
The
lawsuit (Farrell v. Harper) prompted the attorney general
to ask several national experts to investigate conditions
and produce a series of reports, which have been released
in stages since last year. Among the findings:
During
classes and counseling sessions, youths are often kept in
small cages, so that they were isolated from one another and
the staff; the "wards live in constant fear of physical
and sexual violence from CYA staff and other wards";
and "The vast majority of youths who have mental health
needs are made worse instead of improved by the correctional
environment."
CYA
officials have called the findings "substantially correct"
and promised changes, as have the attorney general and several
state legislators. "They're abolishing the use of the
cages," Specter says.
He
says he and attorneys for the state are on the verge of an
agreement to settle the lawsuit. He expects a wide range of
stipulations for improving conditions.
Those
stipulations will include better staff training and the hiring
of more staff, Specter says. "I don't think they're trained
properly or enough," he says. The training would include
use of de-escalation techniques with youth who are acting
up.
While
Specter says some CYA staff members are "obviously malicious,"
he recalls that when he toured CYA facilities a couple of
years ago, "I was struck by how many of the staff wanted
help. … They went into this not for punitive reasons,
but to help kids. …
"They
just haven't been given the resources, the training, the administrative
structure or the staffing that's needed."
"There's
a long way to go," but improvements are on the way, predicts
O'Toole of the youth law center. "The CYA has been a
horrible place for a very long time."
Contact:
California Youth Authority (916) 262-1473, www.cya.ca.gov;
Prison Law Office (415) 457-9144, www.prisonlaw.com
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