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| L.A. County Juvenile Jails Faulted |
| By Long Beach Press-Telegram |
| Published: 04/22/2003 |
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U.S. Department of Justice investigators found that Los Angeles County officials regularly violate jailed children's civil rights by using chemical sprays and hogtying procedures at county facilities, including Downey's Los Padrinos Juvenile Detention Center, in a report released last week. The 49-page report, the result of a two-year investigation, found children in the county's three juvenile jails in Downey, Lincoln Heights and Sylmar went without mental health treatment for days despite their threats to kill themselves and episodes of head-banging, self-mutilation and razor blade-swallowing. About half of the 24,000 children in the county's juvenile probation system, including 1,600 in the three juvenile halls, are mentally ill but only a quarter get treatment. The report said employees frequently overmedicated youths with up to 16 different psychotropic drugs, and sometimes cursed and demeaned mentally ill children and victims of sexual abuse. Probation Department Chief Deputy Paul Higa said officials are working to reform the system based on the Justice Department's recommendations and have spent $6 million to hire more mental health professionals to screen children coming into the halls. The Justice Department may sue to correct shortcomings if the county doesn't fix problems. The investigation was launched in 2000 after a critical report by the county grand jury. The Board of Supervisors recently authorized repairing facilities. The report, by Assistant Attorney General Ralph F. Boyd Jr., described the system as unsafe for children and workers alike. At Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey in 2001, workers hogtied a boy with restraints on his ankles and wrists, with his wrists behind his back and the boy lying on his stomach, a position that can cause asphyxiation. 'The probation staff member who conducted the restraint stated that he had not received training on the use of physical restraints for two years,' investigators wrote. Investigators also found that staff used chemical sprays excessively and without justification, such as when a handcuffed girl threatening suicide was held by two staff members while a third sprayed her. The 1999-2000 grand jury rated all three juvenile halls as poor. |
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