Juvenile Corrections
May 24, 2012
CJCJ advocates for closure of DJJ
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Escalating state budget deficits were revealed in California Governor Brown’s state 2012-13 May Revised Budget released May 14. This requires shared sacrifice in the form of additional cuts to state services, a theme previously articulated by the Governor. In December 2011, Governor Brown announced in Latin, “Nemo dat non habet,” which he translated to “No man gives what he does not have.” At the time, he used this expression to belie the severity of California’s fiscal crisis and the inevitable action required to plug the estimated $2.2 billion revenue shortfall.
In this spirit of fiscal responsibility, the Governor introduced a series of budget reductions or triggers, to take effect January 1, 2012 and reduce state spending by $980 million. These cuts affected a wide-range of programs, including state education and social services...
LINK - CaliforniaProgressReport.com
May 16, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown backtracks on plan to phase out the state’s youth prison system
Responding to pressure from probation chiefs, district attorneys and prison guards, Gov. Jerry Brown has done an about-face on a revolutionary plan to shutter California's youth prison system that was once the nation's largest -- and arguably the most notorious.
Just four months ago, a small section buried in the governor's belt-tightening budget caused a massive stir in the juvenile justice world. With annual costs per inmate at about $200,000 and its population down 90 percent from peak years, the youth prison system should stop accepting serious and violent youthful offenders beginning next year, the Brown administration concluded...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
April 27, 2012
Ridley-Thomas on Juvenile Justice & Reform
Several weeks ago, I was a spectator in a remarkable classroom. An instructor from India was teaching a group of African-American, Latino, and white high school students about religion in South Asia and showing them pictures of Krishna, Vishnu, and Ganesha on a multimedia “smart board” she controlled with a laptop computer.
As a former teacher and a career civil rights advocate interested in improving education for minority youths, I found the scene heart-warming. But the visit was also heartbreaking.
The class was taking place in a juvenile detention facility in Houston. Of course, seeing young men incarcerated is always tragic. But what hurt most was realizing that this everyday ritual in Texas—in which students gathered in an innovative, engaging class in a youth probation camp—was something I’d rarely see in Los Angeles...
LINK - CityWatchLA.com
April 27, 2012
County wrestles with idea to add TV for juvenile inmates
An attempt to allocate money toward recreational equipment at Merced County's juvenile detention facilities hit a wall this week during a Board of Supervisors meeting.
The move would've set aside $15,000 to buy the equipment, which would include an antenna to receive TV channels, pingpong tables, possibly foosball tables and similar equipment.
But such additions to Merced County's juvenile facilities will have to wait because the transfer of funds to pay for it, which required a four-fifths vote, failed on a 3 to 1 vote by the board...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
April 23, 2012
The Case for Phased Juvenile Justice Realignment in California
California is embarking on an ambitious and deep-rooted reform of its corrections system, an effort that has come to be known as realignment. Gov. Jerry Brown’s main aims in this undertaking is to reduce dramatically high costs, as well as overcrowding and recidivism rates by transferring non-serious adult offenders and parolees from the state to the counties.
But concurrent to this effort, many reform-minded criminal justice advocates also propose a full devolution of the state juvenile system to local counties. Full juvenile realignment is a historic opportunity to end a failed system, while addressing county-level discrepancies in sentencing and services. California’s 58 counties already manage much of the juvenile system, including total responsibility for supervising probation...
LINK - JJIE.org
March 30, 2012
Candidates for L.A. County DA should explain their position on charging juveniles as adults
Do Los Angeles County prosecutors too often or too seldom use their power under 2000's Proposition 21 to charge an accused juvenile as an adult, without first submitting the question to a judge? Does "direct filing" against juveniles, as it is known, make residents safer? Is it a good escape valve for the justice system now that fewer juveniles can be sent to state youth camps, and now that prison realignment is making county jail space more difficult to come by?
Los Angeles voters need to know how well the six candidates for district attorney grasp the facts of direct filing and whether and how often — and why — they would exercise that option. It may be interesting to know how much money each candidate has raised, who has endorsed them and what they say about each other, but before making their decisions voters must extract from the candidates more fundamental information about their knowledge, their attitudes, their values and their abilities. The attitude toward charging youths as adults is one of severalkey areas in which the candidates must be probed and prodded...
LINK - LATimes.com
March 29, 2012
Juvenile Justice Expert Says CA State Facilities Should Stay Open
For more than thirty years, it's been Barry Krisberg's priority to fight for reforms in California's state juvenile correctional facilities, known as the California Youth Authority (CYA) or Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). And now a change is coming at the DJJ.
Only three of California's state facilities still remain open, holding a total of about 800 to 900 youth, and soon the state will hand down responsibility of juvenile offenders to counties. But Krisberg, the Director of the of Research and Policy at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute at UC Berkeley's School of Law, isn't so sure that this realignment is the wisest decision. Turnstyle sat down with him to discuss the coming changes to California's juvenile justice system and what they will mean for both the state of California and its counties...
LINK - HuffingtonPost.com
March 29, 2012
Is California Juvenile Correction So Bad? CDCR’s Bill Sessa Says, No.
In 2005, California's juvenile prison system got a face lift. The name changed from CYA, short for California Youth Authority, to the Division of Juvenile Justice or DJJ. And many policies began to change along with the name.
Today DJJ's population is just over a thousand wards, or inmates, down from a high of 10,000 in 1996. And of the 11 state facilities, only three remain. Many of the reforms stem from a 2003 ruling by the Superior Court of Alameda County that found the state juvenile justice system to be poorly managed and unsafe, and while no one can argue that today's system is the same as it was a decade ago, many critics argue that state facilities remain unequipped to manage juvenile detention and reform. On top of that, Governor Jerry Brown is pushing to close state facilities entirely in the face of unprecedented budget constraints...
LINK - HuffingtonPost.com
March 27, 2012
Reform is needed, but it’s too soon to do away with California’s Division of Juvenile Justice
Lawmakers created the California Youth Authority in 1941, making in the process a bold statement of purpose and conviction: Juvenile delinquents are redeemable. They should no longer be imprisoned with adults but instead given a chance at basic education and job training. Rehabilitation, not punishment, is the proper goal of an enlightened and effective juvenile justice system.
But by the late 1990s the California Youth Authority had become a network of grim and violent youth prisons that were so abusive and so destructive to their mission that all but a few were shut down. A majority of the 10,000 state wards returned to probation departments in their home counties; just over 1,000 remain in what is now the state prison system's Division of Juvenile Justice...
LINK - LATimes.com
March 23, 2012
Governor’s Proposal to Complete Juvenile Justice Realignment
The Governor's Proposal:
Fully Realign Juvenile Justice to Counties. The DJJ would stop receiving new wards on January 1, 2013, though DJJ would continue to house wards admitted to its facilities prior to this date until they are released. After all wards are released from DJJ, counties would be responsible for managing all offenders adjudicated in juvenile courts.
Provide Funding to Counties. The Governor proposes to provide counties with an unspecified amount of ongoing funding beginning in 2013-14 to help them manage the increase in juvenile caseload resulting from the realignment. The Governor also proposes a one-time $10 million General Fund augmentation in 2011-12 to help counties plan for their increased caseload.
Delay Collection of Enacted Fees. Current law requires counties, as of January 1, 2012, to reimburse the state $125,000 per year for each juvenile offender committed by the courts to DJJ. The Governor has delayed the collection of these fees, and proposes to continue delaying collection for an unspecified period, perhaps indefinitely. The administration estimates that this provision would have benefited the General Fund by $60 million in 2011-12 and $125 million in 2012-13...
March 21, 2012
Getting inside the Department of Juvenile Justice - Interview with DJJ’s Michael Minor
Michael Minor is chief deputy secretary of the Division of Juvenile Justice at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It's his job to help shape the future for this department that's potentially on the budget chopping block. KALW's Holly Kernan spoke with Minor about what the role of the Division of Juvenile Justice.
MICHAEL MINOR: The Division of Juvenile Justice currently provides services to, as you said, about a thousand young men and 31 young women who are the most troubled youth in California. They are the most serious, violent offenders and also sex offenders. So the population that we are providing services to are young men and young women who have gone through the county system, who need further services, and those services are best provided at this time by the Division of Juvenile Justice.
HOLLY KERNAN: And do you consider these young people a threat to public safety?...
LINK - KALW.org
February 27, 2012
Private prisons (GEO) banned from housing youth under Federal Consent Decree
Children under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) will no longer be housed in a privately run prison or subjected to brutal solitary confinement under the terms of a groundbreaking settlement of a federal class action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The lawsuit charged that conditions at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, which houses youth convicted as adults, are unconstitutional. The facility is operated by GEO Group Inc., the nation’s second largest private prison corporation...
LINK - WJTV.com
February 24, 2012
Lawmakers Consider Bill Opening Youth Prison To All Ages
Lawmakers in Lansing are considering two bills that would allow a youth prison near Lake County to open to inmates of all ages.
But approval could have a devastating impact on the mid-Michigan area.
At this time, nothing's set in stone, but if the bills pass it would allow the state to house inmates at the privately owned and operated facility. On one hand, the move could save a bunch of money, but on the other hand it could have a devastating impact on the local economy...
LINK - WLNS.com
February 22, 2012
Prisons overflow, but not youth camps
Counting down from three, Probation Supervisor Chris Bussey pulled the fire alarm, causing a siren to blare throughout Camp Glenwood.
He and about two dozen other emergency officials hustled out to the quad to watch the commotion as a small cluster of their teenage wards streamed out of the camp dormitories and lined up to be shuttled off-site.
The La Honda honor camp, a rural setting where young offenders serve out their punishments, was holding its first-ever evacuation drill. The drill came at a particularly easy time for those in charge...
LINK - HMBReview.com
February 15, 2012
High-Needs Kids and Juvenile Justice Reforms
As California and the nation continue to struggle with budget crises, creative and cost-effective approaches in the provision of services for high-needs youthful offender populations are becoming increasingly necessary.
Leaders in California, Georgia and New York have recently called for reform or “realignment” of their out-of-date state-run juvenile justice systems. While the urgency for reform in many states is a result of strained state budgets, it serves as an opportunity to engage juvenile justice stakeholders to restructure their juvenile justice systems in a more efficient and effective manner...
LINK - CaliforniaProgressReport.com
February 15, 2012
2012-2013 LAO Report: Completing Juvenile Justice Realignment
Over the past 16 years, the Legislature has enacted various measures which realigned to counties a significant share of responsibility for managing juvenile offenders. Under current law, only juveniles adjudicated for a serious, violent, or sex offense can be sent to state facilities by the juvenile courts. As a result, 99 percent of juvenile offenders are housed or supervised by counties.February 13, 2012
About 35-40 Involved In Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility Fight
About 35-40 kids were involved in a fight Monday morning at the Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton.
It broke out around 9 a.m., in between classes, said Bill Sessa, of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's juvenile division...
LINK - KCRA.com
February 9, 2012
Update: Calif. budget crunchers hear youth-prison closure debate
Players in the fight to shut down — or keep open — the last of California’s state-run youth prisons are meeting this week where the action is: Gov. Jerry Brown’s Department of Finance, where the nitty-gritty of state budgeting gets done.
Struggling with the costs of incarceration generally, California could become the first state to wipe out is state juvenile jail division and the last of three prisons in a highly discredited system...
LINK - iWatchNews.org
February 1, 2012
California’s youth prisons nearing an end
In January 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown announced his plan to shut down all state youth prisons by 2014. If backed by the Legislature, the governor's proposal would have counties share $10 million to develop prudent local alternatives to state custodial facilities. By January 2013, the Division of Juvenile Justice will no longer accept any new admissions, and the entire system will gradually phase out in 2014.
There is significant opposition to this proposal from many youth advocates, probation chiefs, judges and district attorneys. Some are concerned that the counties do not have the programs and resources to manage the current DJJ population, that the youth facility closure will lead to more youth being sentenced to adult prisons and jails, and that there will be wide disparities in treatment and confinement conditions across the diverse counties of the Golden State...
LINK - SFGate.com
January 27, 2012
Juvenile Justice Cut Would be a Mistake
One of Governor Brown’s budget trigger cuts for California is the $72 million spent on the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ, formerly the California Youth Authority). The governor is proposing to shut down the state juvenile justice detention system and send the youth back to the counties for rehabilitation. On the surface, this seems like a good move—DJJ has a horrible reputation for punishing wards and providing little rehabilitative services.
Santa Clara County is well positioned to take back the14 youth they currently have in the state facility. Its two juvenile ranches are under capacity, and one could easily be converted to a higher-level program with additional funding. Other counties are less equipped to take people back. These counties do not have ranch programs and their juvenile halls are short-term holding facilities, not treatment programs. Also, many rural counties don’t have separate juvenile facilities and kids are held in a separate part of an adult jail—not a very good alternative...
LINK - SanJoseInside.com
January 25, 2012
Fight brewing over historic California plan to close last three youth prisons
California, often a trendsetter, could make history if it approves Gov. Jerry Brown’s bid to close all state-run youth prisons and eliminate its state Division of Juvenile Justice.
Much depends, though, on whether the state’s politically influential prison guards, probation officers and district attorneys can be convinced — or forced by legislators — to agree to Brown’s proposal. That won’t be an easy sell, due to both public-safety arguments and sure-to-surface haggling over just who pays to house juvenile offenders...
LINK - iWatchNews.com
January 13, 2012
Tulare County taking state to court over suspended payments for juvenile offender programs
Tulare County is taking the California State Controller to court to stop plans for the state to suspend payments totaling more than $890,000 to support juvenile offender programs here.
If the county loses the lawsuit, it may have to eliminate the jobs of up to 16 full-time probation correctional officers at the Tulare County Juvenile Detention Facility, north of Visalia.
In addition, the Tulare County Probation Department, which runs the facility, could lose the use of nearly a third its 150 beds to house youths charged with crimes or serving sentences for convictions...
LINK - VisaliaTimesDelta.com
January 11, 2012
Behind Governor’s Plan to Close State’s Juvenile Justice System
For the second time in one year, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed permanently closing the Division of Juvenile Justice, a move that would make California the first state in the nation to eliminate its youth prison system and shift responsibility for the most dangerous young offenders to counties.
When Brown first proposed the plan, county prosecutors and probation officers protested, arguing that counties were unprepared to handle murderers and violent sex offenders. But last Thursday, Brown offered to give $10 million to help counties prepare for the new inmates. At the same time, he blocked $70 million in cuts to the DJJ...
LINK - BayCitizen.org
January 11, 2012
L.A. County youth camps fail to meet U.S.-ordered reforms
The Los Angeles County Probation Department has not fulfilled seven federally ordered reforms at its youth camps.
A report released late last week by federal monitors found that the agency still needs to improve staffing levels at some of its 14 camps, improve how it identifies youths who have mental problems and do a better job of evaluating and treating youths with medical problems, among other issues.
The probation department, which houses and works to rehabilitate about 2,200 of the area's most troubled youths, has been under federal oversight for almost a decade. As part of a 2008 deal, federal officials threatened to take over the department unless it complied with 41 reforms...
LINK - LATimes.com
January 10, 2012
Juvenile Justice Realignment in 2012
By Brian Heller de Leon
Policy and Government Outreach Coordinator, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Selena Teji, J.D. Communications Specialist, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
“The purpose of this publication is to recommend a full juvenile justice realignment plan in the 2012-13 budget cycle. The Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) budget triggers implemented on January 1, 2012, highlight the unsustainable costs of maintaining a dual juvenile justice system in California.
DJF’s current recidivism rate of 80% and continued scrutiny under the Farrell lawsuit both demonstrate the limited success the state has at rehabilitating youthful offenders (CDCR, 2010, p.10).”
January 6, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown calls for a historic shuttering of the state’s notorious youth prison system
Following years of failed attempts to better serve juvenile offenders and the public's safety, California's once-sprawling youth corrections system may soon bow to a final, unprecedented strategy: shutting its locked gates for good.
Budget pressure in a system with annual costs of $200,000 per ward drove Gov. Jerry Brown this week to propose halting all new intakes at the Division Of Juvenile Justice. If approved by state legislators, beginning next year the state's three remaining prisons would then shrink themselves to oblivion, as current inmates complete their terms. Under the plan, county probation departments would assume the custody and treatment of all juvenile offenders -- an expansion from current practice where only the most serious and violent are housed by the state...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
January 6, 2012
New Budget: Less Prison Time For Women, Juveniles
Under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations will be cut by about $1.1 billion.
The department plans to eliminate the Department of Juvenile Justice and reduce the number of women in prisons.
The CDCR also will lose more positions than any other department...
LINK - KCRA.com
January 6, 2012
CCPOA Weekly Update: January 6, 2011
December 29, 2011
Juvenile offender fire camp closing
A Camarillo camp where juvenile offenders have been trained to fight fires will close Friday, leaving only one similar camp open in California, authorities said Wednesday.
Youths who have been trained at the camp will be reassigned to a camp known as Pine Grove in Amador County in Northern California.
At its peak, the Camarillo camp, known as the S. Carraway Public Service and Fire Center, housed five fire crews, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire...
LINK - VCStar.com
December 27, 2011
Marshals capture CDCR teen escapee in Sacramento
U.S. marshals arrested a juvenile offender who escaped custody when he was allegedly driven away by accomplices during a community service project Tuesday around 10:55 a.m in Sutter Creek.
Angel Iniquez, 19, fled from the scene in a white compact car when California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, CDCR, officers were distracted helping another crew member, who hurt himself with a chainsaw, CDCR spokesman Bill Sessa said.
Sessa said there were two accomplices in the car with Iniquez...
LINK - News10.net
December 27, 2011
Teen escapes CDCR custody in Sutter Creek
The authorities search for a juvenile offender who escaped custody when he was driven away by accomplices during a roadside community service project Tuesday around 10:55 am.
Angel Iniquez, 19, fled from the scene in a white compact car when California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, CDCR, officers were distracted helping another crew member, who hurt himself with a chainsaw, CDCR spokesperson Bill Sessa said.
Sessa said there were two accomplices in the car with Iniquez..
LINK - News10.net
December 26, 2011
Juvenile offenders: Cuts put counties on the spot
Prosecutors and prisoner advocates are warning that an impending change in the way California handles juvenile offenders could threaten the success of criminal justice statewide.
At issue is a midyear cut that will essentially gut the Department of Juvenile Justice, the state agency that incarcerates California's most violent juvenile criminal offenders. Under the budget reduction enacted earlier this month, the agency will cease to exist unless counties pony up $125,000 a year per youth offender...
LINK - SFGate.com
December 19, 2011
California trigger cuts pose young inmate problem in Stanislaus County
The "worst of the worse" young criminals could return from state lockups to Stanislaus County under California's projected "trigger cuts," local authorities fear.
Jill Silva, the county's acting chief probation officer, said, "We're not equipped to take them back."
Keeping young inmates in the state's Division of Juvenile Justice could cost the county an extra $2.9 million per year, she said...
LINK - ModBee.com
December 19, 2011
California teen gets 21 years for killing gay student
A Southern California teen who pleaded guilty to killing a gay classmate was sentenced Monday to 21 years in prison.
Brandon McInerney, 17, will serve time in a juvenile detention center until he turns 18, at which point he will be transferred to the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He will get no credit for time already served, and was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
In September, a judge declared a mistrial in the case of McInerney after a nine week trial when jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on whether he should be found guilty of manslaughter or murder in the death of Lawrence King. He was set to be retried as an adult...
LINK - CNN.com
December 16, 2011
New fees may force Tulare, Kings counties to bring juvenile offenders home
Dozens of juvenile criminals from the Valley now in state custody will return home to finish their sentences because of state budget cuts, officials said.
Under mid-year cuts taking effect Jan. 1, California counties must pay the state $125,000 per year for each juvenile offender held by the state Division of Juvenile Justice.
At least two Valley counties -- Tulare and Kings -- say they can't afford that, so they'll seek to have their juvenile offenders serve their sentences locally, even though local facilities aren't set up for long-term incarceration and rehabilitation of younger criminals...
LINK - FresnoBee.com
December 14, 2011
Trigger cuts: CA counties to pay state $125,000 to house juvenile offenders
Gov. Jerry Brown announced earlier this week the state has to pull the trigger on a series of mid-year budget cuts due to low tax revenues. One of those reductions shaves $67 million from the state’s juvenile justice budget. The cut will force counties to foot the bill for Juvenile Justice wards in state custody.
In the 1990s the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice oversaw 10,000 young offenders. Then, about a decade ago, state lawmakers restricted the types of offenders counties can send to state juvenile facilities to those convicted of violent and serious felonies and sex offenses.
The belief was that keeping youth closer to home would reduce their risk of becoming a repeat offender. The change shrunk the Division of Juvenile Justice population to 1,100...
LINK - SCPR.org
November 26, 2011
Juveniles face dangers when they do time in adult jails
For thousands of teens accused of crimes, punishment precedes any conviction in court.
While awaiting trial and ostensibly presumed innocent, they can be held for months or even years in county jails for — and sometimes with — adult suspects.
Federal law aims to shield youths from extended detention and from physical or psychological abuse by adult inmates...
LINK - ReporterNews.com
November 19, 2011
In California, most youthful offenders stay in juvenile detention
Although California law technically allows juvenile offenders, under very specific circumstances, to be housed in adult jails, it rarely happens.
Most juvenile offenders are housed either in county juvenile detention facilities or one of the three state facilities that house serious offenders being prosecuted in juvenile court.
Bill Sessa, spokesman with the Division of Juvenile Justice of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Sacramento, said the state doesn't house juveniles in adult prisons under any circumstances...
LINK - VCStar.com
November 10, 2011
Ventura Youth Correctional Facility Female Treatment Program
We are in receipt of your notice letter dated November 2, 2011, and received in this office on November 3, 2011 regarding the CDCR intent to combine the Assessment Process, Mental Health Residential Unit and Core Treatment Unit into one living unit known as the Female Treatment Program at Ventura Youth Correctional Facility...
November 10, 2011
DJJ Activation of Low Core Male Unit at Ventura Youth Correctional Facility (VYCF)
Due to the closure of the Southern Youth Correctional Reception Center Clinic (SYCRCCC) and the need for additional male beds, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) will activate a low core male unit at VYCF, effective November 28, 2011. The additional program will be incorporated with current existing low core male programs at VYCF...
October 5, 2011
New report says locking up youth is counterproductive in CA
A new report by the Annie E Casey Foundation concludes keeping juveniles incarcerated is counterproductive, as recidivism rates are close to 70 percent.
Before the State of California decided to hand over thousands of adult criminals to county jurisdictions, it had already begun to transition juveniles to local supervision.
Jo Pastore heads San Diego's Public Defenders Juvenile Office. She said - unlike the concerns about the adult transfer - the transfer of juveniles was readily accepted. She said unlike Los Angeles, San Diego never sent many juveniles to state prison, so the numbers are small. Only about two or three juveniles a month are returning to San Diego...
LINK - KPBS.org
September 17, 2011
Caps and gowns behind locked gates
Friday was graduation day for Brian Steven Hernandez, a goal that was never a sure thing growing up in his tough North Hollywood neighborhood.
At Jack B. Clarke High School, within the locked gates of a state youth correctional facility in Norwalk, Hernandez realized he could turn his life around.
But Hernandez and his 22 classmates, proudly wearing maroon caps and gowns, are the last graduates to receive diplomas at Clarke, which is closing at year's end due to state budget cuts...
LINK - LATimes.com
August 18, 2011
Protesters complain about DJJ facilities
A civil-rights group will stage a protest Sunday in front of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in Camarillo, alleging the facility and others like it are abusing their juvenile wards.
"We need to call attention to these abuses," Abel Habtegeorgis, a spokesman for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, said this week...
LINK - VCStar.com
August 11, 2011
Judge given 28 years for bribes from private prison company, sending youth there to fill it up
A former juvenile court judge in Pennsylvania was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Thursday for his part in an alleged “kids for cash” scam considered one of the worst judicial scandals in US history.
Mark Ciavarella Jr., 61, a former judge in Luzerne County, was also ordered to pay $1.17 million in restitution.Mr. Ciavarella was convicted in federal court in Scranton, Pa., in February on charges that he and a second judge, Michael Conahan, ran the local court system as a racketeering enterprise...
LINK - CSMonitor.com
June 27, 2011
DJJ problems in San Diego Tribune
In 2000, the state’s Office of the Inspector General issued a report strongly critical of how state corrections officials treated youthful offenders. Of specific concern was the practice of locking up about one-sixth of all youthful offenders for 23 hours a day with little or no documented explanation of the special detention. The report concluded that this not only probably violated due process rights but was likely to make youthful inmates even more troubled and inclined to commit new crimes upon release.
Now a new audit by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation concludes that 11 years later these practices are still common at state youth prisons. Yes, it is good to hear the department’s own audit owned up to this problem. And, yes, the explanation for the problem – the prison system doesn’t have the staffing or money to offer better conditions for youthful offenders – is quite plausible...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com
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
June 13, 2011
More on DJJ audit re: “temporary detention” or “temporary intervention plans”
Juvenile inmates at California correctional facilities have been held in isolation nearly 24 hours straight on hundreds of occasions this year, in violation of state regulations.
An audit by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in March found multiple facilities operated by the Division of Juvenile Justice kept youth prisoners deemed a threat in their cells for all but 40 minutes a day. Auditors found Ventura Youth Correctional Facility, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, to be the worst offender...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
June 13, 2011
CDCR announces closure of SYRCC
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Monday that it will close one of two facilities for juvenile offenders in Southern California by early next year.
The Southern Youth Reception Center and Clinic in Norwalk (Los Angeles County) is scheduled to close by January 2012 to reduce costs and improve the fiscal efficiency of the Division of Juvenile Justice, the state’s youth prison system, according to a CDCR press release.
State officials expect the closure to reduce overall costs by $17 million by summer 2012 and $44 million the following fiscal year...
LINK - BayCitizen.org
CDCR To Close Southern California Facility for Juvenile Offenders
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) today announced that it will close one of two facilities for juvenile offenders in Southern California by early next year.
The Southern Youth Reception Center and Clinic in Norwalk (Los Angeles County) is scheduled to close by January 2012 to reduce costs and improve the fiscal efficiency of the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
“In these tight fiscal times, we must take every step possible to operate in a cost-effective manner and make every tax dollar count,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate, who noted that the closure is possible because the youthful offender population is expected to remain steady or decline in the coming years...
LINK - CDCRToday.Blogspot.com
June 6, 2011
CDCR Audit: DJJ - Ventura wards faced 24-hour confinement, classes in closets
Inmates in California’s youth prison system were subjected to nearly round-the-clock confinement on hundreds of occasions and had to attend school in closets, showers and storerooms because of staff shortages and rampant violence among prisoners, according to a recent state audit.
While Division of Juvenile Justice guidelines state that young prisoners can be confined to their rooms no more than 21 hours a day, the audit found 249 instances between January and April this year in which DJJ had violated its own policy...
LINK - BayCitizen.org
May 10, 2011
Juvenile justice reformer urges collaboration
California’s state prison population has remained stubbornly high over the past decade. The new Alameda County Chief Probation Officer wants to lead his department in a new direction, one that focuses on prevention. David Muhammad, an Oakland native, favors an approach that promotes incentives to good behavior, rehabilitation and alternatives to incarceration. These are the kinds of methods, according to Muhammad, that get the best results – fewer people in prison and on probation and parole.
“Basically, if we assess you to be low risk, we are going to leave you alone,” Muhammad said in a recent talk to journalists at UC Berkeley. “If the person is high risk, we want to provide services and opportunities, not just the old trail you, nail you and jail you...”
LINK - HealthyCal.org
March 28, 2011
Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns In Trouble
Second in a two-part series on private prisons (See Part 1 - Town Relies on Troubled Youth Prison for Profits)
The country with the highest incarceration rate in the world — the United States — is supporting a $3 billion private prison industry. In Texas, where free enterprise meets law and order, there are more for-profit prisons than any other state. But because of a growing inmate shortage, some private jails cannot fill empty cells, leaving some towns wishing they'd never gotten in the prison business.
It seemed like a good idea at the time when the west Texas farming town of Littlefield borrowed $10 million and built the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a cotton field south of town in 2000. The charmless steel-and-cement-block buildings ringed with razor wire would provide jobs to keep young people from moving to Lubbock or Dallas...
LINK - NPR.org
March 28, 2011
Town Relies On Troubled Youth Prison For Profits
Prisons are filled with stress and violence; without proper supervision they can revert to primitive places. That's what happened at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi, an NPR news investigation has determined.
As the nation's largest juvenile prison, Walnut Grove houses 1,200 boys and young men in a sprawling one-story complex ringed by security fences about an hour's drive east of Jackson. The State of Mississippi pays a private corrections company to run the prison.
NPR's investigation found that allegations swirling around the prison raise the fundamental question of whether profits have distorted the mission of rehabilitating young inmates...
LINK - NPR.org
November 15, 2010
Colusa County hoping for juvenile hall $$ from “good neighbor” CDCR?
Now that the state has approved another $200 million for juvenile halls, Colusa County probation officials are resubmitting an application for funding to construct a facility of its own.
Colusa is one of eight California counties not to have its own juvenile hall, according to Chief Probation Officer Steve Bordin, despite a 2006 Senate Bill that shifted responsibility for all juvenile offenders to their home counties.
Bordin said the Correction Standard Authority, a division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, will meet Nov. 18 in Sacramento to discuss awarding the money, now that the governor has signed the trailer bill approving the funding...
LINK - Colusa-Sun-Herald.com
February 21, 2010
A history of housing youth at Stark facility comes to a close
It was supposed to have happened later rather than sooner, but the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility will formally close by the end of the month.
And just as quickly, the state Department of Corrections begins a multi-million dollar project to transform the youth prison into a part of the adult California Institution of Men and expand its inmate housing operation in the Chino Valley.
A prison riot in August damaged facilities at the nearby California Institution for Men adult prison, speeding up Stark's closure and conversion.
An official closing ceremony will be at Stark on Monday...
LINK - SBSun.com
February 4, 2010
Federal Corrections Reports
Find and read reports regarding Federal Corrections; ranging in subject from Capitol Punishment, to Family, Leadership, to Technology and much more...
January 19, 2010
Another former DJJ ward at Chad, another murder - manhunt, escape and re-capture
Justin Patrick Welch, the French Camp man charged with the vicious murder of a Wisconsin woman, is scheduled to appear in court today in Waukesha, Wis., after two nationwide manhunts, a daring escape and his eventual recapture.
Welch is suspected of slaying Kimberly Smith of Oconomowoc, Wis., on Oct. 1. Her body was found with hands bound behind her back and with multiple stab wounds, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. Her 4-year-old son was home at the time, police have told the newspaper.
Welch became a suspect after his DNA was found on a knife and gloves found near the crime scene, and he is believed to have been hired through an acquaintance of Smith's ex-boyfriend, who was in a bitter custody dispute over the boy, according to published reports…
LINK - RecordNet.com
January 17, 2010
Former DJJ ward at Chad stabs own father to death
A 21-year-old Waterford man was taken into custody Monday night on the suspicion that he fatally wounded his father during a family fight.
Deputies from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department were dispatched to the 500 block of Stein Way in Waterford around 6:30 p.m. Monday for a report of a disturbance.
When the deputies arrived they observed Jose Eucebio Corona, 21, being physically restrained by neighbors. Laying unconscious in the driveway was his father, Tomas Botello Corona, 65…
LINK - TurlockJournal.com
October 12, 2009
Youth Prison Model Sets High Bar
After recent changes to California's juvenile-prison system brought down recidivism rates and the number of incarcerated youths, and also saved millions of dollars, the state is now aiming to treat its adult prisoners more like youthful offenders.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday signed into law a bill to overhaul the state's adult-prison system. Among other things, the legislation will shift more funding and responsibility for paroled offenders to counties from the state. That echoes a key move in the state's overhaul of juvenile detention — placing more nonviolent inmates in county jails instead of state prisons and helping counties fund rehabilitation services.
"We used the juvenile reforms as a starting point" for the bill, said Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, who helped to craft the legislation…
LINK - Online.WSJ.com
July 1, 2002
Follow-Up: Review of Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility
The follow-up audit was performed because of numerous serious problems identified in an earlier management review audit of the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility by the Office of the Inspector General. The follow-up audit found that Superintendent Crawford has made significant progress in imporoving the operation of the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility, but also identified continuing deficiencies in some areas.
