Youth Correctional Facility
April 29, 2008
Some answers given to residents about future of Paso boys school
Paso Roblans concerned about the state's plans for the next life of the El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility got the change to question state officials for the first time Monday night.
The meeting, attended by about 75 people, was the first of two. A second session is today at 11 a.m. at Paso Robles City Hall.
There are three options for the site's future, which all could move forward: a 900-inmate medium security state prison; 250 inmate state re-entry facility for prisoners nearing their parole dates; and a 100-inmate fire camp…
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
April 21, 2008
Correctional Officers Injured In Small Riot
A small riot that broke out Saturday at the Youth Development and Diagnostic Center in Albuquerque has triggered concerns about staffing at the facility.
The brawl happened Saturday at around 1:40 p.m. Officials said that 24 high-risk juveniles who are being held at the facility were out in a recreation area at the time. A number of them attacked another 20-year-old man who was also in custody. He suffered serious injuries and had to be rushed to the University of New Mexico Hospital.
Three guards were watching the men when the fight broke out. They called in extra correctional officers to help restore order. But, four officers were injured in the melee. One female guard suffered a broken collarbone. Three other guards had more minor injuries…
LINK - KOAT.com
March 2, 2008
AP finds 13,000 claims of abuse in juvenile detention centers
The Columbia Training School - pleasant on the outside, austere on the inside - has been home to 37 of the most troubled young women in Mississippi.
If some of those girls and their advocates are to be believed, it also is a cruel and frightening place.
The school has been sued twice in the past four years. One suit brought by the U.S. Justice Department, which the state settled in 2005, claimed detainees were thrown naked in to cells and forced to eat their own vomit. The second one, brought by eight girls last year, said they were subjected to "horrendous physical and sexual abuse." Several of the detainees said they were shackled for 12 hours a day…
LINK - AP.org (Associated Press)
February 18, 2008
Juvenile prison system needs reform, lawyers say
Advocates urge a judge to appoint a receiver to take over a system they say remains broken despite long-standing promises to fix it.
Three years after state officials promised to fix California's troubled juvenile prisons, advocates for incarcerated youths are urging a judge to appoint a receiver to take over a system they say remains tragically broken. The plea came in a filing last week from lawyers who had settled with the state after suing to transform institutions they said treated children as hardened criminals without regard for their welfare. They contend that the state's Division of Juvenile Justice has missed dozens of court-ordered deadlines for change dating to 2005, making "a mockery of compliance" in six areas: education, safety, medical care, mental health, disabilities and sex-offender treatment…
LINK - LATimes.com
February 17, 2008
Juveniles tried as adults up 170%: DA Cites Gang Prosecution
The district attorney's decision to try 14-year-old Brandon McInerney as an adult in the killing of another boy is part of a soaring trend in Ventura County. In the past two years, the number of juvenile offenders tried as adults has nearly tripled from 10 in 2006 to 27 in 2007, officials say — a nearly 170 percent increase. Also, in the four previous years — from 2002 to 2005 — the total number of such cases was just five, according to figures from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
January 24, 2008
3 D.C. Region Jails Vexed by Crowding
"Every move in this building is a chess game," he said. "I won't say it's unsafe, because it's not. But we are at a breaking point." Three of the nine Maryland county jails in the Washington region are filled beyond capacity, a problem several officials attribute to tighter county budgets and a rapid increase in inmates, especially women and convicts younger than 18…
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
January 12, 2008
An Opportunity to Make Juvenile Detention Better
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation plans to close one of its three remaining youth prisons in Stockton by July. That's good news for Stanislaus County. Why? Because the county will be closer to providing better rehabilitation, education, health care and, if necessary, incarceration for juvenile lawbreakers…
LINK - ModBee.com
September 1, 2004
Follow-Up: Providing for Housing, CYA Wards
This report presents the results of a follow-up to a February 2003 review conducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the implementation by the California Youth Authority and the Youthful Offender Parole Board of Welfare and Institutions Code section 1732.8. The statute, which became law on January 1, 2002, allows California Youth Authority wards who have served sentences in the Department of Corrections to consent to serve their remaining California Youth Authority confinement time in Department of Corrections institutions. Wards covered by the statute are termed "dual-commitment wards." The Office of the Inspector General conducted the February 2003 review and the follow-up review under the authority vested in the Inspector General by California Penal Code section 6126.
