Detention to be reserved for only the most serious of offenders
California: Police train for new policy
Hundreds of police officers from 16 agencies across Santa Clara
County are being trained to keep children such as Marjorie Clark's son
out of juvenile hall — soon to be a place reserved for the most serious
and violent offenders.
Last December, the county's police chiefs passed a new juvenile
detention policy said to be the most restrictive in the nation. The
policy is expected to decrease the San Jose juvenile hall population by
40 percent, with early estimates of at least 2,000 fewer kids booked a
year.
Many of them are doing the same things Clark's son did when he was
12. That was when the boy made his first trip to the county detention
facility after getting caught red-handed tagging with a marker pen. He
didn't stay long, Clark said, but he kept returning. The running away,
skipping school and graffiti charges added up to weeks, and then months,
in the hall and youth ranches.
And while inside, he became more sophisticated, learning from and
mimicking the other boys who became his second family. It's an influence
his mother, a Cupertino administrative manager, said led to problems
that have plagued her son, now 24, ever since.
“He learned so many new tricks when he was in there, things I could
never even dream of,'” Clark said. “He got caught up in a vicious
cycle, he needed to feel important and the only way was to hook up with
these kids. The hall became their culture, their nationality, their
home.”
Soon, time in the 290-bed juvenile hall will be reserved for a
population of more serious offenders.
A report on the hall released last week characterized the detention
facility as having an “adult corrections atmosphere,” where staff
members rely too heavily on painful restraint techniques and lack the
training needed to turn around the lives of youthful offenders. Dozens
of youths have reported being abused by hall staff members in recent
years, prompting criminal investigations by the FBI and the district
attorney's office.
Scrutiny of the hall comes as Santa Clara County enacts sweeping
juvenile justice reforms under the guidance of the non-profit Annie E.
Casey Foundation. The Juvenile Detention Reform project aims to reduce
the number of unnecessary incarcerations and correct racial imbalances.
One of the first reforms is the restricted detention policy, which
must balance public safety needs with the appropriate handling of
juveniles. Patrol officers are being trained through a short video this
month and next, so it is too soon to assess the effect.
Under the new policy, teenagers caught shoplifting or carrying small
amounts of drugs cannot be taken to the hall. Instead, these
less-serious offenders must be released to their parents or community
agencies. Youths suspected of serious crimes such as kidnapping, rape or
robbery with a firearm, will still be detained.
In California, juveniles are increasingly being treated the same as
adult offenders. The detention reform project is a move in the other
direction — holding youths accountable by placing them in
community-based programs, rather than subjecting them to the criminal
subculture of detention facilities.
Santa Clara County's unusually strict detention policy comes as a
relief to officers, said San Jose police Lt. Rich Saito, who helped
craft it. Many of the trips to juvenile hall result in the youth being
quickly released, but they consume up to four hours of the officer's
shift. That's time that could be spent responding to other, more serious
crimes.
Crescencio Liasos, who counsels troubled San Jose high school
students for the Filipino Youth Coalition, said the new policy will help
correct perceptions among youths that getting locked up is something to
be proud of. Some students return from the hall and are welcomed back at
school “on a pedestal.”
“It's like, ‘Oh wow, you went to the hall?’ They seem to be more
popular,” Liasos said. “I don't think the hall is working as a
deterrent.”
Other community activists remain skeptical about the new policy
—
for a variety of reasons. Yvonne Maxwell, who directs services for the
“Africentric” Ujima Adult and Family Services agency, fears police
will get around the new policy by bumping up charges. On the other end of the spectrum, advocates for victims fear youthful
offenders won't get the interventions they need to correct dangerous
behavior. Sheila Henriquez, a member of the probation department's
Victims of Crimes Advisory Committee, said releasing many of these
youths may be “a huge mistake.”
“If they put this into effect without the programs in place that are
necessary to reform these youth, then we're sending a message to the
community that our safety is just not important,” Henriquez said. “I'm
concerned that the restitution piece is missing.”
And, while the policy has been widely embraced by law enforcement
leaders, some officers have their doubts. At a recent training at the
county sheriff's department, at least two participants responded to the
video by stating how officers can still make sure youths are detained —
by calling hall intake administrators or probation officers.
But by far, the biggest concern about the new policy is what will
happen to juveniles who can't be returned safely to parents. Four
community agencies that serve troubled youth around the clock — the
Bill Wilson Center, Alum Rock Counseling Center, Community Solutions and
Social Advocates for Youth — will come under increasing demand.
Although their budgets were exempt from county funding cuts, the
agencies will have to serve increased numbers with existing resources,
which are already stretched thin. And budget cuts are almost certain
next year.
Despite the myriad challenges, Clark said she's hopeful there might
be help for young people now that wasn't available a decade ago, when
her son began a tour of the juvenile justice system that included 11
trips to the hall.
The new policy, she said, “is going to save a lot of
heartache.”
Karen de Sá Mercury News
15 January 2004
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6661804.htm
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