SANTA CLARA COUNTY JOINS CYA BAN

Santa Clara County on Tuesday became the second Bay Area county to stop
sending juvenile offenders to the California Youth Authority in response to
recent reports admonishing the state prison system for harsh conditions of
confinement and failed treatment programs.

"Given the recent articles about the CYA and the close scrutiny to which
the department is being subjected in all aspects of its operation, all
recommendations for a CYA commitment are TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED effective
today," stated a confidential e-mail from a county probation manager
obtained by the Mercury News.

For now, most minors who would have been sent to the CYA will remain in the
county's juvenile hall, which also has been under increasing scrutiny in
the past year, with multiple investigations into possible inmate maltreatment.

Managers in the county probation department, which oversees children and
teens in the juvenile hall and youth ranches, were motivated by
state-commissioned reports on the youth authority in which national experts
condemned -- among other things -- programs that confine inmates in cages
and lock them in cells for 23 hours each day. The youth authority houses
more than 4,400 offenders statewide, ages 12 to 25.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Kurt Kumli, who has been a
longtime critic of CYA conditions, nonetheless said he is troubled by what
he calls "knee-jerk" reactions to the reports -- and said he worries about
the lack of alternatives.

The county has striven to make the juvenile hall a short-term placement
because it is not designed for the intensive treatment that many of the
offenders who suffer from mental illness and substance abuse need. Youth
ranches run by the county are unlocked -- not an option for holding
delinquents convicted of the most serious crimes. And out-of-state programs
can be prohibitively expensive.

"What do you do with the repeat, violent offenders, murderers, rapists,
stabbers and shooters?" Kumli said. "You've got to have an alternative;
otherwise, by solving one problem you are creating another."

Santa Clara County sent 40 of its most serious and violent offenders to the
youth authority last year, down from as many as 200 in the 1990s, according
to the district attorney's office. The decline was due to a dramatic drop
in juvenile crime, as well as decisions on a local level to find better
rehabilitative programs in and out of state.

Judge Raymond Davilla, who supervises the juvenile division, said the
county's decision Tuesday was not a response to pressure from San Mateo
County, which also has stopped sending juveniles to the youth authority, or
San Francisco County, which is considering the same action. Judges, in
consultation with probation managers, decided they needed to see CYA
conditions firsthand and review reports released by the state last month.

Reports and photographs of the youth authority have been published in the
Mercury News and the national press for the past several weeks.

"The pictures of the cages are quite chilling," Davilla said, "but I wanted
to go back and see for myself."

Probation officials, in conjunction with Superior Court judges, are
planning greater scrutiny of all CYA-eligible cases and a tour of the
state's lock-up facilities.

Last week, San Mateo County's presiding juvenile court Judge Marta Diaz
halted all youth authority commitments until she had personally read the
half-dozen reports and considered her county's options. San Francisco
supervisors vote next week on a moratorium on youth authority placements,
and Bay Area probation chiefs will consider alternatives to the youth
authority at a meeting on Feb. 26.