California Youth Authority

A 15-year-old boy who killed another teenager with a baseball bat two years ago was ordered Thursday to serve up to 11 years at the California Youth Authority. The boy was 13 when he struck 15-year-old Jeremy Rourke with a bat after a Pony League baseball game in Palmdale on April 12, 2005. Witnesses said the boy swung twice, first at Rourke's legs, then at his head. Rourke was pronounced dead at a hospital that night.

Faced with serious overcrowding in California's prison system, the Schwarzenegger administration Friday abruptly postponed the sale of a former Youth Authority facility in Whittier to study its possible reuse as a prison. Whittier officials said they expect residents to be firmly opposed. The state Public Works Board delayed the sale of the 74-acre Fred C.

A teenage boy pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping an unconscious 15-year-old girl at a Chatsworth park earlier this year, authorities said. Juvenile Court Judge Fred J. Fujioka sentenced the unidentified boy, also 15, to six months at a California Youth Authority camp after he admitted to one count of rape by use of drugs and one count of rape of an unconscious person. The boy was one of two teens prosecuted in connection with the attack, which took place May 15 at Mason Park. Last month, a 16-year-old boy admitted one misdemeanor count of sexual battery and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 15.

In a sweeping condemnation of the juvenile corrections system, auditors concluded Monday that the California Youth Authority is failing to give offenders the education and training that could save them from a life of crime. The state's youth prisons are still confining too many wards for 23 hours a day, the audit found, calling the practice "ineffective and dehumanizing."

Marking a sharp turn in philosophy, the Schwarzenegger administration agreed Monday to put therapy and positive reinforcement at the heart of California's youth prison system, rejecting today's more punitive approaches in favor of models that have been successful in other states.

Efforts to fix California's scandal-plagued youth prison system will flop unless the state stops housing young lawbreakers in remote "warehouses" and instead puts them in small living centers close to their homes, according to a report delivered Thursday to the Schwarzenegger administration. State officials said that they endorsed housing offenders in small groups, but that money to do so was unavailable.

The Schwarzenegger administration is poised to profoundly transform how California treats its most troubled young lawbreakers, replacing a prison culture of punishment and control with one anchored in group therapy, self-discipline and preparation for life outside.

Leaders of the union that represents state correctional officers Monday endorsed the new, more therapeutic approach planned for California's youth prison system, but said they doubted that it would become a reality. Mike Jimenez, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., said the Schwarzenegger administration's model for reform of the juvenile prisons was "a good target" and would make life safer for the 2,800 officers and counselors who are union members.

The state prison housing some of California's most difficult young felons is a dangerous place that fails to provide the education, counseling and other help inmates need to straighten out their lives, the state's Office of the Inspector General said Tuesday. In echoing earlier criticism of the California Youth Authority, the audit provides a unique window on a single prison and underscores the breadth of problems -- from faulty fences to negligent care -- faced by the state.

Lawyers for three young men convicted of sexually assaulting a severely intoxicated 16-year-old girl told an Orange County Superior Court judge on Tuesday that they would decide by week's end whether they would push for their clients to be sentenced to a juvenile facility rather than prison. If they try to get their clients into the California Youth Authority, probation officers will assess each defendant's suitability before another hearing in six weeks.