Young inmates caged, drugged, state study finds

January 29, 2004

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated

Press. These materials may not be republished without the

express written consent of The Associated Press.

January 29, 2004, Thursday, BC cycle

3:07 AM Eastern Time

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 518 words

HEADLINE: Young inmates caged, drugged, state study finds

BYLINE: By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: SACRAMENTO

BODY:

Young California inmates are often locked in cages as punishment, and those

with mental problems are frequently drugged and improperly cared for, a

state-funded study says.

The California Youth Authority is supposed to rehabilitate its 4,600 young

wards, but instead often focuses on punishment such as isolating offenders in

wire cages, two national experts said in a confidential report obtained

Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Inadequately trained therapists frequently treated youths suffering mental

illness and substance abuse problems with prescription drugs instead of

providing proper therapy. A majority of the wards suffer mental or drug-abuse

problems.

" The vast majority of youths who have mental health needs are made worse

instead of improved by the correctional environment, " reported University of

Washington child psychologist Trupin and forensic psychiatrist

of Washington, D.C. " The California Youth Authority continues to fall

short of meeting many recognized standards of care for youth with mental health

and substance abuse disorders. "

Drugs are frequently administered to restrain misbehaving youths who are of

no apparent danger to themselves or others, while, " In a number of facilities,

psychiatric evaluations are cursory and do not meet accepted professional

standards. "

Widespread use of so-called " chemical restraints " is intolerable, said Sen.

Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who chairs a corrections oversight committee:

" This is not the 1930s. Even in mental hospitals, I thought we'd gotten rid of

these practices long ago. "

The state-funded report is the first of six being conducted as part of a

class-action lawsuit by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Prison Law Office

alleging poor conditions and treatment at the state's 11 youth institutions.

Similar reports have been prepared on education and health care in the system,

which handles young people up to age 25.

The experts said there has been some progress, but cited wide variations

between the nine institutions they reviewed.

The report's release comes a week after a 17-year-old boy from Los Angeles

and an 18-year-old boy from Stockton hanged themselves at the Preston Youth

Correctional Facility in Ione, east of Sacramento.

" We have got a serious problem, and before another teenager commits suicide

the California Youth Authority has got to get its act together, " Romero said.

She plans a hearing on the youth system next month, following two days of

hearings last week on problems at the Department of Corrections for adults. The

youth system has a recidivism rate even higher than that in the adult system,

she said, as high as 90 percent.

State officials aren't disputing the findings, and Youth and Adult

Correctional Agency spokesman Tip Kindel said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new

administration inherited the problems but is trying to fix them " on a fast

track. "

" The report was pretty scathing in terms of what was being done and not done

for the wards, " Kindel said.

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On the Net:

California Youth Authority: http://www.cya.ca.gov

LOAD-DATE: January 29, 2004

Jim - Norman

" Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them. "

Strauss

January 29, 2004