The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Though supportive of the principles at the heart of the plan, lawyers, legislators and relatives of young offenders called it skimpy on details. They also lamented that neither the document, nor the officials unveiling it, mentioned how much the changes would cost and where money to accomplish the task would be found.

"The state worked hard on this plan, and I know their intentions are good," said Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office, the nonprofit firm that sued the state over its management of juvenile corrections. "But there are too many unanswered questions for us to feel confident that we will eventually have a system that keeps kids safe and protects the public."

Specter said he and other attorneys were so disappointed by the lack of specifics that they considered filing a motion seeking to hold state officials in contempt of court for violating a settlement agreement, reached last year, in which Schwarzenegger vowed to make reforms.

Instead, Specter said, the Prison Law Office and state struck an agreement late Wednesday requiring the state to hire by Jan. 3 six national juvenile justice experts. The team, which will include the former youth prison chiefs of Massachusetts and Illinois, will help make immediate changes inside prisons and fine-tune the long-term plan, he said.

The clash over the beleaguered youth system comes as Schwarzenegger faces intense criticism for another aspect of his massive corrections department: a lack of progress on fixing profound problems with medical care for the state's 168,000 adult prisoners.

On Monday, a federal judge overseeing that issue sternly warned the governor to get involved and get the problem fixed, urging him to pay for emergency reforms "the same way you find the money to build a tent to smoke cigars" outside his Capitol office.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he was "taking the gloves off" and would hold a hearing on a contempt motion soon unless Schwarzenegger appoints someone with authority to overcome the "no-can-do bureaucratic mind-set" that has thwarted progress on adult inmate healthcare.

Noting that nothing has changed since court inspectors reported that an average of one inmate dies of medical neglect or incompetence each week, Henderson warned that he would soon issue an order spelling out what the governor must do.

Like prison healthcare, the question of how best to house and manage the state's youngest lawbreakers — 3,149 wards ages 12 to 25 — has dogged government officials for years.

Decades ago, California's prisons for juveniles were hailed nationally for their success in turning around lives. But over time, officials acknowledge, a culture of punishment and control replaced a softer, more paternalistic approach.

In recent years, independent experts have criticized almost every aspect of youth prisons, including the use of force by staff, medical and mental healthcare and the practice of isolating unruly youths in their cells almost around the clock for months on end.

Just as disturbing, critics say, is the fact that the state's investment in the system — about $450 million a year, or more than $140,000 per ward — delivers a poor return in public safety. Statistics show that three out of four youths are back in custody within three years of their release.

Despite agreement on the system's problems, efforts to improve it have stumbled, the victim of political indifference and disagreement over what constitutes a successful approach.

Last year, however, activists thought a historic corner had been turned as Schwarzenegger visited a youth prison to announce a new emphasis on rehabilitation.

In settling the Prison Law Office suit that had challenged conditions, Schwarzenegger agreed to build a new model.

But since then, critics say, progress has been agonizingly slow, and some question whether Schwarzenegger's sagging popularity has made him leery of making corrections a priority.

"It's a question of political courage, and it doesn't look like the governor has enough of it to close these terrible prisons and create a system that works," said Jakada Imani, field director for Books Not Bars, which represents relatives of many wards.

David Steinhart, a noted juvenile justice consultant who has advised the state on reforms, also expressed frustration, saying "the momentum for change has slowed to a crawl, and the commitment just doesn't seem to be there at the top."

A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, Julie Soderlund, said the governor remains "fully committed to bringing necessary reform to California's juvenile justice system."

Bernard Warner, chief deputy secretary of juvenile justice, echoed that sentiment, noting that other states that shifted their youth prisons from a punitive to a rehabilitative model, such as Missouri and Colorado, took many years to accomplish the change.

The plan was filed Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court as part of the lawsuit settlement. Funding will be specified in the governor's next budget, scheduled for release in January.

Warner, who was appointed by Schwarzenegger in August, said the plan would be phased in over five years. In the first 18 months, he said, the state would roll out a more refined screening process for incoming inmates, replacing the current method of categorizing them merely by gender, age and gang affiliation.

Officials also will replace the use of temporary detention, or the extended isolation of youths who fight or commit other misconduct, with a new behavior management program that includes positive reinforcement and steps wards must follow to rejoin normal housing.

Another important change, Warner said, is moving beyond a "one-size-fits-all" correctional employee to multiple categories of staff, allowing those with more of a social work orientation to specialize in treatment while others focus on security.

Shortly before noon Wednesday, a few dozen protesters showed up at Schwarzenegger's office, delivering letters from incarcerated teenagers as well as petitions with 3,200 signatures demanding that the most notorious of the youth prisons, N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton, be closed. Instead, the plan recommends converting the prison into one for treatment of sex offenders and those who are mentally ill.

Among those protesting was Oralee Small, whose grandson, Dyron Brewer, died in September 2004 while serving time at Chaderjian. He is one of three wards — including Joseph Maldonado, who hanged himself with his bedding in August — to die at the prison in the last two years.

Posted on Thu, Dec. 01, 2005

Youth prison reforms unveiled
ADVOCATES COOL TO STATE'S PLAN
By Edwin Garcia
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Wednesday proposed an ambitious plan to reform California's juvenile justice system that includes rebuilding aging youth prisons, improving living conditions and providing treatment to all offenders.

The plan, however, was criticized by some juvenile justice advocacy groups and a top legislative critic of the state's youth prison system who contend the proposed reforms don't go far enough.

``What we need is a detailed vision for moving this department philosophically toward education and rehabilitation,'' said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, ``not just incarceration of youth.''

The reforms would be implemented through at least the next five years, depending on funding, and state officials contend they will lower recidivism rates, provide safer facilities and better prepare youths to integrate into society.

``What it does is really improve the services and the environment of our facilities for the wards who are committed by the court to our care,'' said Bernard Warner, chief deputy secretary of Juvenile Justice, calling the plan ``not just a shell'' but a ``comprehensive strategy.''

The plan is in response to a 2002 lawsuit filed by the non-profit Prison Law Office. Among the highlights of the reforms:

• The state will eliminate the concept of so-called general population. ``Right now, essentially about one of every three of our youths are in what would be defined as a treatment program,'' Warner said. ``And what this plan does is, it says that all youths who come to our system will be in a treatment program, whether it's sex offender, whether it's mental health, whether it's substance abuse.

• The size of living units, which house as many as 80 youths, will be reduced to no more than 38. Mental health units will house no more than 30, and include more staffing and the use of licensed mental health professionals.

• A proposal to replace 40-year-old decrepit prisons with ``state-of-the-art'' facilities, including prisons for no more than 350 wards. Some of the current facilities were designed for more than 1,000 youths.

Many of the areas proposed for reforms were detailed in the lawsuit and covered in a 2004 Mercury News series that described wards being packed into what was then known as California Youth Authority institutions and receiving inadequate education and a lack of treatment for mental health care.

Under a 22-page consent decree issued in Alameda County Superior Court in November 2004, the state was required to spell out how it intended to improve living conditions, mental health care, education and rehabilitation programs. The last of the series of remedial plans, covering mental health, and safety and welfare, were filed in court shortly before Wednesday's deadline. The department also faces a deadline today to present its reform plans to the Legislature.

Warner and his associates presented the state's latest plans in a fifth-floor office of the department known as the ``reform room,'' where walls are covered with colorful papers containing hand-scribbled notes on how to improve the 100 or so facilities that house about 3,200 youths.

Like Romero, advocates for youth prison reforms had reservations about the report's recommendations.

``The plan is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go anywhere near far enough to address the serious and life-threatening problems present in the CYA today,'' said Don Specter, director of the San Rafael-based Prison Law Office. The Marin County inmate rights group filed its class-action lawsuit on behalf of Marciano Plata and eight other inmate plaintiffs.

Specter said the facilities were not much better than a year ago when the governor signed the legal consent decree obliging state officials to make significant reforms.

``The plan isn't developed. Although it has many good things and many positive ideas, there are few concrete commitments that can assure confidence that you actually have a program that will rehabilitate youth and promote public safety.''

Lenore Anderson, director of the activist group Books Not Bars in Oakland, had hoped the department would close some facilities. The 2-year-old organization founded by San Francisco's Ella Baker Center for Human Rights has long been critical of the youth authority.

``Any plan that keeps abusive youth prisons run by prison guards open is a set-up for failure,'' Anderson said. ``The solutions have been obvious for a long time, and we're disappointed that it doesn't call for closing any facilities.''

Under the reforms, none of the current facilities are slated to be closed.

The state's most troubled youth prison, the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, which has been cited for its failure to provide adequate education, will turn into a treatment facility.

Warner said staffing levels would need to be improved, but he did not disclose details, and he said a number of reforms would have to be agreed upon by the state's powerful prisons union.

Warner also declined to put a price tag on the proposed reforms, saying it was too early to determine the financial implications. But he expressed confidence that Schwarzenegger and the Legislature would fund the improvements.