Juvenile Institutions

Under the blazing sun, kids wearing fatigues stagger into an empty dirt lot, gasping for air after a punishing run in the hills. They would rather be doing cannonballs into a pool, shopping at the mall or catching a Dodgers game. Yet here they are--reluctantly--wanting a drink of water and a break. Sweating profusely and hunched over, 10-year-old Damien has only one thought: "I hate this."

Expressing deep concern over allegations that a teacher arranged fights between students in a classroom at a Los Angeles County juvenile probation camp, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said Wednesday that he wants the education agency responsible for hiring and supervising the teacher held accountable. Antonovich said he planned to submit a motion at next week's board meeting demanding that Los Angeles County Office of Education Supt. Darline Robles report back April 6 with details on the hiring and screening of Stephen Wesley, 43. Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators arrested Wesley on Tuesday for allegedly allowing and refereeing five boxing-style bouts -- recorded by a security camera -- during his class at Camp Karl Holton in San Fernando on Aug. 8, 2008.

There are no handcuffs, no razor-wire fences, no uniforms, no cells. Missouri does things differently in its prisons for young people, and it shows -- in what you see and what you don't. Inmates, referred to as "kids," live in dorms that feature beanbag chairs, potted plants, stuffed animals and bunk beds with smiley-face comforters. Guards -- who are called "youth specialists" and must have college degrees -- go by their first names and don't hesitate to offer hugs.

About 3 out of every 25 youths in state and privately run juvenile correctional facilities have experienced at least one incident of sexual victimization, according to a federal study released Thursday. The study, which is the first of its kind, brings attention to the need for more training and accountability for staff members at such facilities, said Linda McFarlane, deputy executive director of Just Detention International, a nonprofit human rights organization that works on preventing abuse in detention centers.

Three teenagers escaped from Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles late Wednesday, including two convicted of murder in adult courts, after they overpowered guards using a firearm that was apparently smuggled in, officials said Thursday. Jose Argueta, 17, Marvin Sandoval, 17, and Fernando Nupiri, 18, who remained at large Thursday evening, began their escape about 11:35 p.m. the previous night, when one was allowed out of his locked room to get a drink of water, authorities said.

Shadowed by a federal lawsuit over its treatment of mentally ill children, Los Angeles County has finally closed its much-criticized MacLaren Children's Center in El Monte and moved the few children who remained there into other homes. Intended to house foster children for just a few days or weeks, MacLaren had grown perilously overcrowded with a mix of mentally ill, delinquent and abused youths who often lived there for months.

The statistics are so startling that they appear to cry out for an explanation: Seventy percent of juveniles who are arrested nationally for criminal offenses are white, yet whites make up only 35% of those in custody. Black juveniles make up only about 25% of those arrested, but 44% of those in custody. Out of every 100,000 white youngsters in the nation 287 are in custody, but for every 100,000 black youngsters 1,009 are in custody.

Students held at Camp Joseph Scott, one of 19 juvenile probation camps in Los Angeles County, are some of the toughest to teach. Locked in classrooms behind 12-foot fences topped with razor wire, many of the girls sport tattoos with the emblems of some of the region's most infamous gangs. Although most are high-school students, on average they read at a fourth-grade level and have fifth-grade math skills. Karen Berns has taught math there for 15 years. Over time, she learned to be vigilant.

A judge warned Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday that employees at the county's home for abused and neglected children are too quick to have youths who act up arrested. Terry Friedman, presiding judge of Los Angeles Dependency Court, said he began getting complaints this spring about excessive arrests at MacLaren Hall in El Monte. He recalled a case in which a 13-year-old boy was charged with battering a 6-foot-tall, 200-pound MacLaren employee.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department suspended billing for more than 100,000 former probationers Thursday -- the day before the county had planned to start intercepting their tax returns -- after the public defender challenged the legality of many of the bills. The suspension marked the second time in a month that the department backed down, at least temporarily, from its aggressive pursuit of debts.

Earlier this year, L.A. County probation officials vowed to fix their system for billing parents of youth in detention after supervisors questioned why the agency had mistakenly billed low-income and foster parents. Supervisors gave a group of probation and other county officials three months to propose changes, but six months later a plan has yet to be presented. Probation officials declared a moratorium on new probation billing Feb. 13 after questions were raised by The Times and children's advocates about improper billing.

More than a month after declaring a moratorium on billing parents and guardians of youths held in detention, Los Angeles County's top probation official backpedaled Tuesday, saying his department is still collecting on thousands of bills even as it reassesses its billing practices. Probation Chief Robert Taylor announced the moratorium Feb.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department suspended billing for more than 100,000 former probationers Thursday -- the day before the county had planned to start intercepting their tax returns -- after the public defender challenged the legality of many of the bills. The suspension marked the second time in a month that the department backed down, at least temporarily, from its aggressive pursuit of debts.

A year ago, Michael Bowler took in 16-year-old twins he met while volunteering at a Los Angeles County probation hall. Bowler, a 51-year-old special education teacher who volunteered through the Catholic Church, thought he could help the county as well as Edward and Louis Hanson by giving them a home. Instead of thanking Bowler, the county billed him nearly $10,000. When the bill arrived in October, Bowler studied it, confused.

A private company will use drug-sniffing dogs to search Los Angeles County juvenile probation camps and halls beginning in March, marking the first time the Probation Department has turned to a non-law enforcement agency for such searches. County supervisors on Tuesday approved using $100,000 in county court services reserve funds to hire Interquest Detection Canines.

While an Orange County facility that cares for abused and neglected children provides spacious cottage-like facilities and roughly four staffers per child, conditions at county juvenile hall are far more bleak, with a shortage of beds and waiting lists for basic programs, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday. "It's almost like you are comparing an area of barracks to Beverly Hills," said grand jury foreman Jim Perez.

Seven people apparently drowned in this freezing Sierra lake Monday, three of them teen-agers on a holiday skating party and four would-be rescuers. Another youth and a volunteer fire chief were plucked from the lake to safety. Witnesses described a dramatic and ultimately futile effort to rescue all the victims, in what ranks among the worst tragedies of its kind in the United States in at least a decade.

A family court has sentenced an 11-year-old girl to a state-run juvenile correctional facility in eastern Japan for killing a classmate with a box cutter, an official said Wednesday. In a closed-door session, judges at the Nagasaki prefecture Family Court ordered the girl to undergo counseling as part of a rehabilitation program at the facility in Tochigi prefecture, just north of Tokyo, the court official said on condition of anonymity. It was unclear how long she might have to stay.

In a move to improve mental healthcare in the troubled juvenile justice system, Los Angeles County probation officials are asking that a 70-bed hospital in Sylmar be built to house and treat the most seriously ill youths in custody. The facility, which would cost an estimated $5 million to $10 million, would make it possible to transfer incarcerated juveniles now held in 24-hour isolation into a clinical setting, said Probation Chief Robert Taylor.

Students held at Camp Joseph Scott, one of 19 juvenile probation camps in Los Angeles County, are some of the toughest to teach. Locked in classrooms behind 12-foot fences topped with razor wire, many of the girls sport tattoos with the emblems of some of the region's most infamous gangs. Although most are high-school students, on average they read at a fourth-grade level and have fifth-grade math skills. Karen Berns has taught math there for 15 years. Over time, she learned to be vigilant.