Baton Rouge, LA - In a sign that some of the changes at Louisiana's juvenile prisons have taken hold, a federal judge Monday approved a request to end the federal oversight of what were once considered to be some of the worst youth facilities in the nation.

The U.S. Justice Department, youth advocates and the state jointly requested that Judge James Brady end the 2000 settlement agreement that ordered health-care and staff improvements at the facilities, as well as measures to decrease violence. The settlement also allowed for the Justice Department and advocates to monitor progress of the changes.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco attended the hearing at the Baton Rouge federal courthouse, later calling the judge's order a testimony to her administration's work to change juvenile justice in Louisiana.

"I set out to reform Louisiana's broken juvenile justice system to ensure that it was a system designed to rehabilitate youth, not a system designed to feed our adult prisons," Blanco said at a news conference on the courthouse steps.

Though the juvenile justice system had been under federal court oversight since the 1980s -- part of an older lawsuit filed by adult inmates about conditions at Louisiana prisons -- investigations into the youth prisons intensified in 1996, said Keith Nordyke, a lawyer who has been active in the legal challenges to change the state's prison system.

The Justice Department that year began a sweeping investigation of the state's four juvenile prisons, including one that was privately run, eventually reporting in 1997 that youths were being held in unconstitutional conditions. The investigation supported a report that had been issued by Human Rights Watch in 1995, with both finding unacceptable levels of violence, including guards attacking juvenile inmates.

"It wasn't a pretty picture. Children were being abused by the adults responsible for their care," said Judy Preston, deputy chief of the Justice Department's special litigation section, in comments asking Brady to dismiss the lawsuit.

The Justice Department and youth advocates filed separate lawsuits about the prison conditions in 1998, which led first to a settlement about educational programs in 1999 and later the more sweeping agreement in 2000.

During the 2003 legislative session, lawmakers adopted a bill to close the heavily criticized Tallulah youth prison, the name of which later was changed to the Swanson Correctional Center for Youth-Madison Parish, as well as begin an overhaul of the entire system.

Advocates Monday said the push to rework secure facilities got a boost when Blanco took office in 2004. One of her first decisions was to separate management of the youth and adult prison systems, eventually hiring longtime educator Simon Gonsoulin to run the youth office. Blanco's administration also closed the Tallulah prison to young offenders six months ahead of schedule.

Under Gonsoulin, the state brought in consulting assistance from the leaders of the Missouri youth system, which is widely regarded as the nation's best. Staff at the three state juvenile prisons -- the Bridge City Center for Youth, the Jetson Center for Youth and the Swanson Center for Youth-Monroe -- were trained in Missouri's more rehabilitative model of managing young offenders, and dormitories were redesigned to be smaller and more inviting.

"This is about taking the juvenile facilities and reforming them to the next level," said David Utter, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, the advocate group that filed lawsuits against the system and monitored the internal changes.

Utter said the improvements have gone beyond the mandates of the legal settlement, which changed several times over the years as incremental steps were implemented.

Though violence has decreased at the centers, advocates and others still would like to see improvements, he said. But Utter heralded the willingness of state officials to continue reform.

In her address to Brady, Preston agreed, saying that after her recent tour of the secure facilities in March that she concluded the state could be used as a model for how to change a youth prison system.

Utter said the key for the system will be completing needed changes, including creating smaller secure facilities around the state. Louisiana also needs to expand the offerings of community programs to help youths before they commit crimes that result in being sent to secure care, he said.

"You have to have these kids close to families and communities in order to reintegrate them effectively," Utter said.

Gonsoulin said his agency is starting to concentrate on these issues, saying that in the upcoming budget 50 percent of the agency's money will be spent on community-based programs or probation and parole.

Though the changes in the secure facilities have not been finished, Gonsoulin said they hope to have all three prisons converted to the Missouri-style model by the end of 2007. Regardless of whether youths are in the new program, he said all are now living in dorms with a maximum of 15 other youths and more staff supervision, which has led to less violence.