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Printed
on Wednesday, November 26, 2003
San Jose Mercury News
Supervisors
Put S.J. Juvenile Hall Control on Ballot
by
Karen de Sa, San Jose Mercury News
Dissatisfied with the pace of reforms in a violence-plagued juvenile hall, Santa Clara County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday for a ballot measure that will give them the power to overhaul operations.
If approved by voters in the March 2 election, the measure will strip Superior Court of its longtime oversight of the county probation department, whose 813 employees run the juvenile hall and several youth ranches. Supervisors would appoint the chief probation officer and conduct all hall business in open, public forums.
"Juvenile hall is not rehabilitative, it does not prevent recidivism,'' Supervisor Blanca Alvarado said. "It does no good to ignore the obvious -- change must occur."
The vote left a glum phalanx of judges sitting in the front row of the board chambers.
"The juvenile hall issues in the paper regularly have made the supervisors think they can do better,'" said juvenile Judge Len Edwards, referring to Mercury News accounts of staff abuse and lack of accountability. "They think a new structure could correct the problems -- and we disagree with that."
Supervisors said Tuesday that they are fed up with the current system: Although they allocate more than $91 million for probation department operations each year, they have no authority over how the money is spent. That arrangement became increasingly troublesome, they said, during nine months of news stories revealing that the hall was far from the "model facility" it was supposed to be.
These revelations included youths suffering broken bones during restraints, parents actively discouraged from complaining or even finding out more about their children in custody, and hall managers who failed to properly document injuries to minors.
An outside consultant confirmed many of these findings, painting the hall as a mini-prison with staff called "counselors" who in many cases acted more like guards. The Probation Peace Officers Union responded to the report by saying hall employees desperately needed training.
"We have been troubled by this for months,'" said Supervisor Liz Kniss. "We actually did think this was a model facility."
Probation employees said Tuesday it's all happening too fast. And they worry about whether their on-the-job safety needs -- including handling the area's toughest youths -- will be considered.
"As an employee, I sit back and watch,"' said supervising probation officer Cleveland Prince, praising his colleagues' hard work and dedication to youth. "I wonder, do people really see the employees behind all that's going on? The commitment we make is not being talked about."
Others say change was too long in coming. "Hallelujah, the day has come!" shouted longtime child advocate Sparky Harlan. "For me, it's the best Christmas present you could get in this county."
Harlan said there are good people working in the 290-bed San Jose facility, but the reports mean that drastic overhaul is needed. And that includes greater public access to a largely secretive facility where thousands of young people pass through each year.
The likelihood of change taking place at a faster rate under elected officials is in dispute.
Presiding Judge Thomas Hansen appealed to the board to share power, or at least curb its zeal for the March ballot initiative. In a statement to the board, Hansen said statewide studies show that collaboration is the best approach.
Findings from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reveal that across the country there are three bodies typically supervising juvenile halls: the courts, a statewide probation system or elected county leaders.
Of the three, the courts were most likely to solve problems of overcrowded facilities, one of the most critical problems nationwide, researchers found.
But most of California's large counties -- including Los Angeles and Alameda -- have elected officials overseeing probation.
Board Chairwoman Alvarado, who spearheaded the local campaign for a supervisor takeover, closed Tuesday's meeting with a simple premise. She said the juvenile justice system is about holding kids accountable for their actions and seeing that they reform their ways.
But she added: "It has been impossible to hold accountable those people in charge of probation."