1993_05 Insight May 1993

              May 5,1993
Page 11
The stainless steel toilet, sink, and concrete bed are the only items that are present in juvenile detention facility cells.
Detention facilities adapt to change
♦ New policies and
programs adjust to
the growing number
of juvenile offenders.
By Mike Fleming	
Staff Writer
"Joe" is a 13-ycar-old currently
housed in ihc "A" Unit at Fresno
County's Juvenile Hall.
He sleeps on a small bed covered
with a thin mattress and a raggedy
gray blanket. Graffiti is etched into
the three-fool thick wooden door, and
the cold stone floor casts a grayish
gloom across the cell's confines.
"Joe" has access to a metal toilet, a
metal sink, a toothbrush, some soap
and some toilet paper. The accommodations arc modest, and only the bare
necessities arc allowed. Officials contend that anything else would be dangerous.
"You gotta protect the kids from
themselves and from each other," said
senior group counselor Dorothy Bell,
who handles the 23 youngsters housed
in one of Juvenile Hall's two high-
security units. "Youcan't let "em have
pencils or big toothbrushes or anything else they can use for weapons.
These are some serious kids."
"Joe" is one of Bell's charges. He Ls
the youngest resident of the "A" Unit
and one of Bell's primary concerns.
"He's in here for murder...a very
violent murder," Bell said. "He'd be
in our (prc-adolcsccnt) unit, but he's
just loo violent and loo disturbed."
And 13-year-old "Joe" is noi alone.
He is merely part of an increasingly
violent con lingcniof juvenile offenders who are overloading the juvenile
justice system and filling the system's
detention faciliues beyond their capacities.
"In the last 10 years, wc have seen
suchachangc in the profile of the kids
we keep here," said Jack Tracy, assistant director of institutions. "We're
dealing with a whole different breed
of juvenile offender now, and we're
struggling to keep our head above
water. The numbers keep growing,
and the crimes keep getting more and
more violent.
"It's frightening. Very frightening."
Twenty-seven juveniles were
charged wiih Murder One last year
alone, and more than 500 Fresno
County youihs were incarcerated for
assault-type offenses in the same lime
period.
Juvenile Hall employees, like senior group counselor Nina Furch,
carry mace and a two-way radio as
their only protection from the inmates
who make weapons out of toothbrushes and oul of pencils.
Furch supervises ihc 29 inmates in
Unit D, one ofthe Hall's six functioning units. Units B and Darc the Hall's
two standard detention units while
Units A and C accommodate more
violent offenders and offer higher security. Unit G hoascs only girls, and
Unit H is for pre-adolcsccms.
Furch said il isn't easy to keep the
juveniles "on-track" bul emphasized
that structure is her greatest ally.
"Structure isthe name ofthe game,"
Furch said. "These kids go to school
from 8:30 in the morning until 2:40 in
the afternoon. They have structured
recreational activities, and they have
schedules forclean-up duties, writing
letters and turning out the lights. Wc
couldn't run this place any othcrway."
But. as Tracy pointed oul, a tight
structure and a competent, qualified
staff aren't enough to keep ihc facility
running smoothly. He said that budget cuts arc impeding ihe employees'
ability to cope with the inmate population.
"The numbers of juvenile offenders
in this town are climbing, and the
facilities to accommodate the juvenile offender arc being pared down,"
Tracy said. "We're looking at a system in shambles, and I don't know
what kind of future tomorrow holds."
Fresno County's Chief Probation
Officer Verne Spcirs has an idea of
what kind of future faces Fresno
County'sjuvcnilcjusticcsystcm,and
he doesn't like what he sees.
"It's not any fun lo have to swing
Ihc budgci axe, but wc only have so
much to work wiih," Spcirs said.
"Cutbacks arc incviiable."
This year's cutbacks, Speirs said,
may well result in ihe closure of Juvenile Hall's entire top floor. That
would mean the closure of both Unit
G and Unit H and the loss of 58 beds.
Tracy said plans are currenUy being
made to accommodate that impend-
ances. Tracy said ihe average case
makes il into the juvenile courts within
45 days.
Based upon the outcome of the court
appearance, the juvenile may beclcarcd
of all charges, placed on probauon,
sentenced to some form of community
work or sent to either C.K. Wakefield
School or the California Youth Authority.
Bul these juveniles represent only
approximately 25 percent of all, juveniles arrested in Fresno County. The
oiher 75 percent arc released on cita-
"The fabric of society is unravelling,
and our kids are showing an
increasing disposition to criminal
behavior."
— Larry O'Neill, former juvenile
court judge
ing loss.
"We're looking at combining both
of our high security units, A and C,
into Unit A." Tracy said. "Unit C
could then be used io house our prc-
ads and our girls."
Tracy said this consolidation would
mean housing as many as 50 hardcore juvenile offenders in Unit A.
That's an ugly propsccL We've
definitely lost the upper hand,"Tracy
said. "We've lost our edge, and the
future isn't looking any brighter."
For the juvenile offender, the future
is similarly bleak. A criminal act may
or may not include a prison sentence,
and it may or may not induce any
formal efforts at rehabilitation.
CurrenUy, all incarcerated juvenile
offenders begin al Juvenile Hall. The
offenders arc booked into ihc Hall
while ihey await their court appear-
lion andnevcrspend even one n ight in
a detention facility.
"Our fac ili lies just aren' t large enough
to accommodate ihe growing juvenile
criminal population," Tracy said. "So
most of these kids never even see the
inside of Juvenile Hall. We only have
so much room."
Juvenile Hall currently has an operational capacity of 226, with one of its
units already closed because of budget
cuts, and the facility still faces losing
58 more beds later this year.
C.K. Wakefield School has only 55
beds, and offenders sentenced to C.K.
Wakefield spend 150 days in the facility. This severely limits the school's
ability to accommodate large numbers
of juvenile offenders.
"More lhan 13,000 juveniles were
referred to (j uvenile probauon services)
in 1992, but we could only lock up a
small percentage of them," Spcirs
said. "These kids know il, too. They
know ihat even if they're picked up,
there's a good chance ihey won'i be
charged or booked. Wc jusl don't
have the space."
If a juvenile offender is not placed
at C.K. Wakefield after his court
appearance, only one other detention facility is available — the California Youth Authority. It's an op-
lion that local juvenile justice officials said is perceived as a "last re-
son" for "hardened, serious juvenile
offenders," bul it's an opuon thai is
being utilized more frequendy in recent years.
Tom Cruz, supervising parole agent
for the local CYA office, said that
more and more Fresno County cases
arc being rcfen-cd to CYA because
of local space constraints.
"They have loscnd these kids somewhere, and ihcy just don'i have ihc
room," Cruz said. "We haven't seen
a dramatic increase yet, but the numbers are rising steadily."
Pan of ihc increase, Cruz said, may
be a result of a relatively new local
policy, which took effect Dec. 28.
The new policy allows for violent
offenders to be sent to CYA on their
first offense.
According to former juvenile court
judge Larry O'Neill, the new policy
gives judges the freedom to issue
harsher sentences lo violent juveniles and may also reduce overcrowding at C.K. Wakefield.
O'Neill also hopes that the policy
will allow the beginning offender a
chance at a "new start" by receiving
more intensive counseling at C.K.
Wakefield.
"With the policy, our local counselors will be able io work more
closely wiih the beginning offenders atC.K. Wakefield," O'Neill said.
"And at the youth authority, the
violent offenders will get more extensive, long-term treatment and
programs."
But, Tracy said, this form of intervention and rehabilitation can only
occur where resources allow. Unfortunately, he said, shrinking resources have left C.K. Wakefield
wiih limited space and have limited
the facility's efficacy.
"(C.K.) Wakefield is a great program," Tracy said. "There just Isn't
enough room to putevcry juvenile in
there. A lot of them just get placed on
probation or are given a warning.
And with these kids, a warning
doesn't go very far."
And the warnings, despite their limited impact, are coming more frequently because space at both Juvenile Hall and C.K. Wakefield is rapidly evaporating.
Following the implementation of a
new "system" at C. K. Wakefield Jan.
1, there has been even less room
available at the detention facility.
The new system allows for a 180-
day commitment io ihc facility, as
opposed to last year's average com
mitment of less lhan 30 days.
Local juvenile justice officials
contend that ihe change is "for the
good of (he kids," but they admit
the long-term consequence is that
fewer juvenile offenders can be
accommodated.
"What we were seeing were juveniles who would walk in the
front doors of C.K. Wakefield and
then, one month later, they were
walking oul unchanged," Speirs
said. "Wc had to re-evaluate what
wc were doing, and wc decided
that the length of stay had to be
increased."
The goal, Spcirs said, is io reduce
the number of repeat offenders.
"If wc can get to ihcm early
enough, maybe wc can make a
change," he said. "If we can reach
them before they've been in the
system too long, maybe we can
turn them around."
Spcirs admitted, however, that
his self-professed "noble philosophy" has some gaping flaws.
"Trouble is," he said, "ihat we
never get a chance to work wiih
ihcsc kids until ihcy' ve commuted
a few more crimes and made a few
more victims.
"We need to intervene earlier,
but ihe system doesn't allow us the
funds to deal with these kids until
they're really hurting society and
hurting themselves. It's very, very
sad."
And Spcirs said the financial picture is not looking any brighter for
the 1993-94 fiscal year.
"I have to cut 12 percent out of
services to meet the target budget," Spcirs said. "That means cutting S 1.1 million out of probation
services and another Sl million
oul of die institutions' budget. It's
only going to get worse, and I
don't know what we're supposed
to do next."
O'Neill pointed to the current
population of juvenile detention
facilities in California and said that,
although there may be no easy
solution, somcihing must be done
... and soon.
The California Youth Authority
currently houses approximately
8,400 juvenile offenders in its 11
institutions, and California operates a total of 48 juvenile halls
throughout the state, all of which
arc filled near capacity.
The average cost to detain one of
these juveniles is $32,400 a year.
"Something's got to give somewhere," O'Neill said. "The fabric
of society is unravelling, and our
kids are showing an increasing disposition to criminal behavior.
"It's got to stop somewhere, and
ihat somewhere can no longer be
ihc inside of a juvenile detention
facility. That philosophy just won't
work any longer, and there just
aren't the resources to keep it going.
"Something's got to give."
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