Report calls Chino facility lax, dangerous 2 years after governor vowed to fix system

Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

(02-28) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- The state's largest juvenile prison provides virtually no education services to its wards, allows them to keep makeshift ropes in their cells and keeps most of them locked up 22 hours a day, according to a report Tuesday by the state inspector general.

The report, issued more than two years after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to improve conditions inside youth prisons, concludes that the environment is so bad at the Herman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino that wards could be especially prone to violence or suicide.

Among the findings are that wards at Chino are allowed to cover their cell windows -- blocking prison staff from seeing inside. The practice, the report says, is particularly troublesome in light of a 2005 suicide at a Stockton facility in which a ward covered his cell window and hanged himself with a bedsheet.

The state inspector general's office, which acts as a watchdog over California's prison system, found that many of the conditions at the Chino prison mirrored those of the Stockton prison.

"You have the same kind of recipe brewing,'' said Brett Morgan, a spokesman for Inspector General Matthew Cate.

The review brought on harsh criticism from advocates for juvenile offenders who noted that the state has missed court-ordered deadlines to implement reform plans it agreed to when Schwarzenegger settled a lawsuit in 2004 over unconstitutional conditions inside youth lockups.

State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who has proposed shutting down the state's Division of Juvenile Justice, formerly called the California Youth Authority, said she "wanted to scream when I read this report.''

"Nothing has changed,'' Romero said. "We're dealing with an organization that is impervious to change.''

Cate's investigators visited Stark three times in 2006 and found numerous problems:

-- Inspections of cells designed for hard-to-manage wards found that more than half had prohibited items, from fabrics used to cover cell windows to makeshift ropes. One ward had constructed a large punching bag in his cell, another had 17 Styrofoam cups filled with ingredients for pruno, or homemade alcohol. Conditions at the facility "present an environment conducive to suicide attempts and potentially dangerous to staff,'' Cate wrote.

-- A review of 323 wards' records found that only seven were allowed out of their cells for more than three hours a day, and less than 1 percent of them received any educational services. There was one teacher for 54 wards in the living unit the investigators reviewed.

-- Wards received no discipline or only light discipline for sexual misconduct and appeared to receive relatively little treatment for sexual behavior problems before being released. The report notes that one ward convicted for lewd and lascivious acts exposed himself to staff members eight times and was kicked out of his treatment program but then was released from the system without any parole conditions.

The report reiterates many of the problems cited in 2004 throughout the youth prison system, when Schwarzenegger held a news conference at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton to announce the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The suit had accused the system of warehousing juveniles in prison-like facilities instead of providing education, counseling and mental health care.

The governor said then that the juvenile justice system should work with young criminals to help them change bad habits that could land them in prison, and his administration submitted plans in 2005 and last year to make changes in all aspects of the system.

But the department has missed several deadlines outlined in those plans, according to Don Specter of the Prison Law Office, which filed the lawsuit. Specter noted that the job of director of programs for the system is vacant.

"The person who's supposed to lead the transition hasn't been hired,'' he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which includes the juvenile justice system, said the department was beginning reforms, such as reducing the number of wards in living units and creating better sexual behavior treatment programs, that would affect Stark and other facilities.

"The (inspector general's) review came as we were submitting these plans, and we are now beginning significant reforms,'' said Bill Sessa.

Schwarzenegger administration officials have pointed to Chaderjian in Stockton as an example of positive change. The facility garnered notoriety during the past few years for a videotape showing guards beating two wards and for the 2005 suicide of ward Joseph Maldonado, who had been kept in near-isolation for eight weeks before his death.

The department reduced the number of wards at Chaderjian, which has housed most of the most dangerous youth offenders in the system. In 2006, the level of violence there went down.

But many of those wards were moved to Stark, and assaults there and in other youth facilities went up last year.

"They basically just shifted the problems,'' said Sue Burrell, an attorney for the Youth Law Center in San Francisco, who said she has received numerous letters and phone calls from wards and their parents saying wards at Stark have asked to be kept in their cells at all hours because they fear for their safety.

Schwarzenegger this year has proposed reducing the size of the youth prison system by giving counties block grants to house juvenile offenders locally. The idea is supported by many advocates.

"Shrinking the system is good in the long term, but right now we seem to be sacrificing the lives of many young people,'' Burrell said.

E-mail Mark Martin at markmartin@sfchronicle.com.