Pubdate: Wed, 28 Feb 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Jonathan Abrams, Times Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

YOUTH CORRECTIONAL FACILITY IS A 'RECIPE FOR TRAGEDY,' INSPECTION FINDS

The institution in Chino has fixed few of the problems found in a 
similar checkup two years ago, the state's inspector general says

California's largest youth correctional facility remains a "recipe 
for tragedy," despite repeated calls for safety improvements, 
according to a special report released by the state's inspector 
general Tuesday.

The Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino keeps large 
numbers of wards isolated for all but two hours a day, fails to 
provide mandated counseling and education, and allows dangerous 
materials, including ropes, into rooms, said Inspector General Matthew Cate.

"We found these same conditions at the facility two years ago and 
reported on them in January 2005," Cate said. "Yet we find they still 
have not been corrected."

In an extensive condemnation of the juvenile corrections system then, 
auditors concluded that the California Youth Authority failed to give 
offenders education and training that could save them from a life of crime.

The 2005 report said the Stark facility, which holds 779 male 
offenders from ages 18 to 25 for crimes including theft and murder, 
locked down some inmates around the clock, except for five-minute 
daily showers. It also reported that some wards blocked their cell 
windows, preventing anyone from monitoring activity inside.

The new review suggested little progress had been made.

It found that more than half of the wards in the facility's special 
management program, designed for those with violent or disruptive 
behavior, had dangerous materials in their rooms -- including 
clotheslines and curtains.

"The continued presence of curtains covering windows and makeshift 
ropes is of particular concern, since those conditions echo the 
circumstances under which a ward hanged himself at the N.A. 
Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in August 2005," Cate said.

Although youth correctional facilities must provide all wards with 
exercise, education, counseling and treatment, the review found that 
on the six days selected for examination, wards in Chino's special 
management program received less than 1% of the required education time.

"We've recognized the problems that the audit has uncovered, and we 
have been working to correct them," said Bill Sessa, a California 
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman. He said many 
of the things being corrected at Stark were part of broader changes 
made over the entire youth correctional system.

The inspector general's office serves as an independent state 
examiner of the California Department of Corrections and 
Rehabilitation but has no direct authority over it, said Chief Deputy 
Inspector General Brett H. Morgan.

"It is disheartening to find the problems we have identified have yet 
to be rectified," Morgan said.

"The changes need to come from the Department of Corrections; they 
have to be the one that finally issues them."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman