Disarray in Juvenile Prisons Jolts Capital
SACRAMENTO — Already grappling with a staggering budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces a growing consensus that the state's vast prison system is dysfunctional, corrupt and plagued by violence.
This week a series of reports hammered the juvenile system on all fronts, including the "decrepit" condition of its facilities, the "stunning" level of violence within its walls, and the substandard medical and psychiatric care it provides wards, as young inmates are called.
Those disclosures followed a federal court investigator's report 10 days ago that the Department of Corrections, which runs the adult prison system, was plagued by a "code of silence" that protected rogue guards from punishment, corrupted recruits and was condoned by leaders at the very top.
In recent years, such disclosures have sparked little interest at the Capitol, where most politicians have protected the nation's largest prison system and spared it from budget cuts. But times clearly have changed.
Last week, the new governor told the Sacramento Press Club that "we have a big, big problem that we have inherited
On Monday, he alluded to the crisis again in a radio interview, saying, "We want to clean the place up; we really want to bring order there."
Legislators too are giving greater scrutiny to correctional facilities, which account for almost $6 billion in state spending each year.
On Tuesday, state Sen. Gloria Romero (D- Los Angeles) offered her assessment of the reports released on the Youth Authority. The reports, based on visits and confidential interviews, were prepared by independent experts as part of a class action lawsuit by wards alleging inhumane conditions in the juvenile prisons.
Calling those conditions "chilling," Romero joined two corrections experts in demanding immediate reforms -- most notably, that the state stop isolating troublesome young convicts in steel-mesh cages not much bigger than phone booths.
Romero also said the Youth Authority was "totally failing" in its mission to rehabilitate youths who commit crimes, and suggested that a court order and a team of outside reformers might be needed to turn it around.
"We clearly have a juvenile detention system that is in chaos, ruled by fear and neglect," said Romero, chairwoman of the Senate committee on corrections. Despite spending about $80,000 annually on each young offender, the Youth Authority has a "shameful" record, both in its treatment of juveniles and in the public safety results it delivers, she said.
