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November 18, 2008
LA: State takes steps to close Jetson prison for youth
State takes steps to close Jetson
* By SANDY DAVIS
* Published: Nov 15, 2008 - Page: 1B
The state is on its way to closing Jetson Center for Youth and making steps toward reforming the state’s juvenile justice system, Mary Livers, head of the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice, told a state commission Friday.
“We are in the process of shrinking Jetson,” Livers said. “We feel good about what’s happening there.”
Livers made the remarks at a hearing of the Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission at the State Capitol. The commission was created in 2003 to help reform the state’s juvenile justice system.
Jetson is one of three juvenile prisons — also known as secure care facilities — operated by the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice.
Jetson came under fire earlier this year after allegations surfaced of brutality and sexual abuse being committed by both staff and inmates at the facility.
The Legislature voted during the last session to close the 800-acre facility by next year and replace it with smaller, regional facilities where young lawbreakers can be closer to their homes while not living in a large, state institution.
Livers said Friday that Jetson’s population has been reduced from a high of about 215 teenage offenders earlier this year to 81 on Thursday.
It is still under discussion how the facility will be used, Livers said.
Also providing testimony to the commission on reform efforts were members of other state offices including the Departments of Social Services, Health and Hospitals and the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
Susan Sonnier, deputy secretary of the Department of Social Services, told the commission one of the more difficult hurdles facing the state is the large number of children living in poverty.
“Louisiana has the second highest rate of child poverty in the nation — 26.8 percent of Louisiana’s children live in poverty,” she said noting that the national average is 18 percent.
Sonnier said the state continues to struggle with the problem.
“I don’t know that we’re moving up,” she added. “People living in poverty is increasing in the state.”
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, chairman of the commission, said that the number of children living in poverty is “unacceptable.”
“I am expecting at some point in time a detailed approach with specific timetables and outcomes to deal with that issue,” Landrieu said to Sonnier.
Landrieu called the statistic “sobering.”
“Juvenile justice cannot be separated from that,” Landrieu said. “When you have a poverty rate like ours, one of the highest in an industrialized nation, we have a tremendous amount of work to do for all of the children of Louisiana.”
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/politics/34502744.html
Posted by lois at November 18, 2008 10:26 AM