CYA CHIEF RESIGNS AMID ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT

A Six-Month Investigation Focused On A Correctional Facility In Chino

SACRAMENTO-Gregorio Zermeno,whose tenure as head of the California
Youth Authority was clouded by reports of inmate beatings and
druggings, resigned under fire after an investigation of improprieties
at a CYA institution in Chino, the state's top corrections official
said Thursday.

"It has become apparent that the problems of the Youth Authority
require aggressive action and specialized management skills to turn
the department around," said Robert Presley, the secretary of youth
and adult corrections and the governor's top prisons adviser.

Presley said he asked for - and accepted - Zermeno's resignation
from the $105,883-a-year job, which he had held only since March. The
resignation of Zermeno, who had been awaiting Senate confirmation,
takes effect in early February.

Zermeno, 53, who worked his way up through the ranks, was not
available for comment Thursday, his office said.

The CYA has nearly 7,700 children and young adults, ranging in age up
to 25 years, in custody statewide at 11 institutions.

According to Presley's office, a six-month inspector general's
investigation completed in September "yielded serious findings of
allegations of misconduct and staff-training deficiencies within the
CYA."

The investigation focused on the Herman G. Stark Youth Correctional
Facility in Chino, with 1,318 wards. Other investigations looked into
allegations of misconduct, including charges of sexual abuse at the
CYA's Ventura School in Camarillo.

According to published reports, investigators at the Chino facility
examined allegations that officers pitted rival gang members against
each other, that some inmates were improperly drugged and slammed into
walls, and that some had been placed in excrement-filled cells.