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| California to move offenders out of Chino |
| By mercurynews.com |
| Published: 08/29/2009 |
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SACRAMENTO — California's largest and most notoriously troubled youth prison will soon shut its doors to juvenile offenders, the latest move in a systemwide shift away from punitive, adult-style warehouses that has contributed to the most dramatic downsizing of its kind in American history. Human rights activists and crime experts alike celebrated Thursday as juvenile justice chief Bernie Warner announced the pending removal of all young offenders from the Heman G. Stark Correctional Facility in Chino. The facility now houses 390 men, including 32 from Northern California, who committed serious and violent offenses as minors. Stark is one of the state's two most violent institutions for men ages 18 to 25 doing time for crimes as serious as rape, armed robbery and murder. By law, the young inmates, known as wards, are entitled to treatment and rehabilitation before being released. But those at Stark say they are too scared even to go to school inside the facility due to constant gang and racially motivated attacks. Some spend up to 21 hours in their cells as punishment. Counselors wear stab-proof vests. "Stark is a dinosaur which has been unfit as a juvenile correctional facility for decades," said Barry Krisberg, a consultant working with the Schwarzenegger administration to overhaul the state's juvenile correctional facilities. "It's basically a prison and it needed to be closed to kids years ago." Read More. |
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