Overcrowded juvenile hall tries to cope img

County is expanding it slowly even though there is no state or county money to pay for it

The nurse at juvenile hall works out of a former storage closet. She is qualified to remove stitches from a child's laceration but sends him instead to a doctor's office; her makeshift area does not meet state standards.

In the next room, young offenders sleep on cots when beds are full, and cells house already sober children who need a place to slumber.
 

Even the iron doors guarding juvenile hall fail repeatedly as old electronic wiring shows its age.

Overcrowding continues to plague the San Luis Obispo County Juvenile Services Center, leaving some youth offenders without parental visits or privacy, and causing others to be sent home early without access to services such as drug and alcohol counseling.

Probation officials say there is no state or county money available to pay for an $8 million to $12 million expansion of the 25-year-old building, near the Sheriff's Department off Highway 1.

But they are taking the first step next month by breaking ground on a $2.75 million new reception area.

Juvenile hall has needed expansion for at least six years, probation officials say. Ideally, county Chief Probation Officer Kim Barrett said, they need to nearly double the number of beds to 85, which would require more staff and allow them to offer more treatment.

Although juvenile crime is dipping in the county and state, the hall stays full because of the changing demographics of juvenile offenders and fewer being sent to state correctional facilities. The hall exceeded its 45-person capacity 94 days over the last year, Barrett said. Probation officials plan to assess later this year what programs and size of juvenile hall is needed.

Different demographics

These days there are more offenders with drug and alcohol problems and mental health issues. More are serving longer sentences for more violent crimes, placing different demands on the hall.

"What we're dealing with more is a tougher group of kids coming into our system," said Probation Division Manager Jim Salio.

• An increasing number of juveniles in the hall need treatment for mental health problems. "They pose a completely different set of challenges," said juvenile hall superintendent Gary Joralemon. "If they're not receiving the services they need, they respond in a criminal way."

• Children with mental illnesses end up staying longer because they're harder to place in a group or private home and there is no maximum time a youth can stay at juvenile hall, Barrett said.

• The number of girls in juvenile hall jumped to 31 percent in 2005-06 from 19 percent in 2002-03, consuming space.

• An increasing number of children are brought to juvenile hall because of fighting at schools. Five years ago, Joralemon said, such children were sent to the principal's office.

• Sentencing practices are shifting, and more serious offenders with longer sentences are being kept close to home rather than sending them to the state Division of Juvenile Justice, formerly the California Youth Authority.

Juvenile Court Judge Teresa Estrada-Mullaney believes it's important to consider options such as a foster home or a group home before a teen is sent to the state facility.

She said she wants youth to use probation services such as drug court and truancy court, adding that she does send minors to the Division of Juvenile Justice when appropriate. In 2002-03, seven offenders were sent there before Estrada-Mullaney took the juvenile bench; one was sent in 2003-04 and two in 2004-05.

The cost of overcrowding

The overcrowding at juvenile hall has a ripple effect.

Attorneys vie with parents, probation officers and police investigators who wait for time in one of two visiting rooms.

Hallways sometimes substitute, becoming visiting corridors, and privacy is a luxury.

The lowest-risk offenders are selected to sleep on cots in a day room while being supervised by a probation official. Girls often fit the profile.

Sex offenders, youths with severe behavioral problems and those who commit serious violent crimes cannot be housed with other offenders, reducing the number of youths who can sleep in cots.

Less attention for each youth takes a high toll on mentally ill offenders.

"You'll have staff assisting a mentally ill youngster, and another (mentally disabled) youngster sees that and says, ‘I want that attention,' " Joralemon said. "It's really tough on these kids when it goes up, and it poses a whole set of behavioral problems."

Combating overcrowding

By the time a child reaches Estrada-Mullaney's courtroom, he or she often has been through a diversion program, which gives children a chance to prove they can remain law-abiding. It also keeps them out of juvenile hall.

The pressure to keep the population below 60, at which time juvenile hall could not operate properly, might result in sending some children home on a court supervision program sooner than normal.

"I would have a severely crowded juvenile hall if I kept every kid," Barrett said. "We need to be responsible in releasing every kid that we can. That's a judgment call, but the felonies we keep."

Joralemon said releasing kids on home supervision is not a threat to public safety but a treatment issue because offenders aren't able to receive a structured schedule and services such as drug and alcohol counseling or victim programs.

What is the solution to overcrowding at the Juvenile Services Center?