June 22, 2011
LA County juvenile hall problems in the news
Two new reports out this week bring troubling news from Los Angeles County’s beleaguered juvenile halls. According to the Crime Report, Los Angeles is not taking court-ordered reforms serious enough to accomplish them by a Fall 2011 deadline. The county has been under federal and state supervision since 2008, when regulators discovered abusive and unprofessional conditions in the juvenile halls. Since then, we’ve seen regular reports of misconduct emerge from LA:
For instance, on pp: 7-9 of the monitors’ report, one finds a section titled, “Abusive Institutional Practices,” that outlines “abusive and/or threatening behaviors” toward kids that staff are ordered to avoid. The behaviors include:
….“slamming” youth into hard surfaces such as walls, floors, doors or any other hard surface/object; or placing youth into uncomfortable positions for long periods of time that may be viewed by a reasonable person as inappropriate…. denial or limiting of restroom access….taking punishing or restricting the programming opportunities, including limiting outdoor recreation, for large groups of youth when one or two youth act out…”
LINK - KALWNews.org
