OFFICIAL RESIGNS AFTER CHARGES OF BRUTALITY IN JUVENILE JAILS

The head of California's troubled juvenile corrections service has resigned
amid demands by state officials for a stronger response to brutality in the
system.

Gregorio S. Zermeno, 53, director of the California Youth Authority, was
forced to resign on Wednesday after only 10 months on the job. He was not
available for comment.

In a statement announcing the resignation, which becomes effective in 45
days, Robert Presley, the state corrections secretary, said, "It has become
apparent that the problems of the youth authority require aggressive action
and specialized management skills to turn the department around.

While Mr. Zermeno, a 28-year veteran of the authority, had been in the job
only a short time, his resignation was not unexpected. He still needed to
win confirmation from the State Senate by March, a prospect that was
questionable after the state inspector general earlier this year found a
wide range of abuses at the authority's unit in Chino.

State Senator John Burton, the Senate leader, wrote Gov. Gray Davis on Sept.
30 that he could not support Mr. Zermeno's confirmation. Mr. Burton, a
Democrat, said there was a need for a director "who can recognize some of
these problems himself and take steps to address them rather than be
directed to do so as the result of an outside investigation."

The youth authority, which oversees about 7,700 offenders, has come under
increasing scrutiny since an investigation that focused on abuses at the
Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino. The investigation,
which was ordered by Governor Davis, found that wards at the site, the
state's largest youth prison, had been handcuffed and slammed into walls,
shot at close range with potentially lethal riot guns and forcibly injected
with antipsychotic drugs.

Investigators also found that a practice of reviewing whether inmates could
be integrated with the general population had grown into "the Friday Night
Fights." While the practice started with youths' being placed together in
monitored confinement for an hour to review their compatibility, it became a
situation where rival gang members would be forced to confront one another.

The practice was discontinued after the governor issued a directive on Sept.
24. He also asked the department to initiate a review of use-of-force
policies, changes in the way unruly inmates are removed from their cells, an
audit of the ward grievance policy and elimination of polygraphs as a basis
for whether to investigate such complaints.

Mr. Zermeno's resignation comes a week after the head of juvenile justice in
Maryland was fired following reports that guards had been brutalizing
offenders in three military-style boot camps. California's youth
correctional system has become more complicated in recent years, with more
teenagers' being incarcerated for serious crimes, officials noted, and the
abuses seem to have grown as the system tried to handle the more serious
offenders.

"Kids are coming in a lot younger, a lot more violent and with a lot of
problems," said Terri Delgadillo, acting under secretary of the Youth and
Adult Correctional Agency. "We need to get some strong leadership to make
sure we are adequately addressing the change in population."

As Mr. Zermeno's resignation was announced, The Los Angeles Times published
a report detailing temporary detainment in correctional facility gyms, a
practice in which juvenile offenders are handcuffed and made to kneel for
long periods. The newspaper, which focused on practices at the El Paso de
Robles Youth Correctional Facility, said the detainees would sleep on thin
mattresses at night, subject to hourly handcuff checks by guards. Those
unable to wait for bathroom breaks were left to sit in urine-soaked
clothing.

Ms. Delgadillo said the practice was used when there was a need to separate
15 or more inmates and was under review.