6. history cya1

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© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
HISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA
YOUTH AUTHORITY 1939 & 2004.
Lourdes Castro
Professor Macallair
CJ 475

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INTRODUCTION
• The case of Durrell Tandon Feaster and Deon Whitfield.
– They were found dead in their cell on January, 19th
2004.
– The cases drove the attention of the media, correction
experts and government officials.
– The criticisms of the California Youth Authority grew
bigger.
– This led to a investigation which reported the CYA
problems.

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INTRODUCTION
– The investigation was conducted by the San
Francisco-based nonprofit Prison Law Office on
behave of CYA wards, alleging inhumane conditions
at the state facilities.
– The reports revealed violence and brutality at the
institutions.
– A similar event happened during the late 1930s and
beginning of the 1940s with many cases, especially
Benny Moreno.
• This was true on 1930s as it was on 2004.

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The Case of Benny Moreno
• Benny Moreno was found dead in his cell on August 11th
, 1939 at
Whittier State School.
• This led once again to a investigation at the school for the way
wards were treated.
• The Moreno family argued that Benny was killed and that he did not
commit suicide.
– Their argument was based in the fact that Benny’s body “all
broken up” … “his arm was broken up, there was a big gash
across his lip and down his chin…[and] we could feel a terrible
soft spot in the back of his head… where it was caved in”

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– The family also questioned the fact that Benny hung
himself with a new belt that he had. They argued that
they tried to give Benny a new belt, but they were not
allowed.
– Contrary to what the medical examiner stated that
Benny had bruises just around his neck. He ruled a
suicide by asphyxiation.
• The family became convinced that Benny had either met
his death a the hands of one of the supervisors or
committed suicide to stop all the abuses that he suffered
from.

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• The case of Faustino Sanchez, who was fatally wounded by
highway patrolman Neil E. Davison.
– Faustino was with his group of friends drinking in a coroner
Davison noticed it and he grabbed the wine bottle and poured it.
– An argument went on between the boys and Davison that
escalated into a fight with rocks and bottles. Davison hit Faustino
with a blackjack to control him. Faustino managed to escape and
Davison shot him.
– According to Davison the shot was meant to be a warning.
Davison was exonerated by the jury who concluded that his
action was a “justifiable homicide”.
– The rest of the boys were arrested, the charge: assaulting an
officer.

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• Because of these two cases El Congreso de Pueblos que hablan Español (the
congress of Spanish Speaking Peoples), which was a organization committed to
obtain workers’ rights and civil liberties for Latin Americans. Communist Party
and the Industrial Labor Defense (ILD) and Citizens’ Independent Vice
Investigating Committee (CIVIC) organized a big coalition to end corruption in
Los Angeles.
• Eduardo Quevedo, president of El Congreso led 200 Mexicans to the assembly
room of the state building to speak with Governor Culbert L. Olson.
• Quevedo asked Olson to order a new investigation in Faustino’s shooting and in
Benny’s death.
• There was a commission appointed by the

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• Mexican Americans felt that these two cases and many others were the
result of racism and discrimination.
• Olson agreed to the petition made by Quevedo.
• Olson appointed a commission with members of El Congreso and IDL
and Leo Gallagher.
• The Gallagher committee, after months of investigation, concluded that
Benny Moreno had committed suicide.
• This investigation raised serious questions about these institutions.
• Benny’s suicide was a starting point for a reform of the juvenile justice
system in California

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Model of Reform
• California made its reforms based in the American Law Institutes’
recommendations.
• Many experts studied the CYA and they saw the problems with it.
• Leonard V. Harrison, one of the members of the new Institute’s
committee, and Pryor McNeill Grant, founder of the New York City’s
Boys Bureau, conducted a study
– The study was designed to evaluate the treatment of young criminal
offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 years old.
– The boys were exposed to humilations
– The boys ended up in adult rather than in juvenile halls.

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Model of Reform
• The researchers concluded that the remedial approach
of the system was a failure.
• They also argued that these institutions were
“preparatory schools” and “universities” of crime.
– One of the causes, they believed, mass detention and
treatment fail to reform.
• They suggested that a court for minors should be
established.

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Model of Reform
• Segregation or categorization of the offenders based on the age was
another suggestions.
• The term Adolescence took place
• Sheldon Glueck, a Harvard professor and criminologist, with his wife
Eleanor T. Glueck also conducted a research. They concluded that
regard the age if an offender commits a crime, criminality is predictable.
• Their findings also include that criminal behavior decreases when the
offenders reach maturity.
• Also that the rates of recidivism are high between 16 to 22 years of age.

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Model of Reform
• William A. Healy, another member of the Institute's Criminal Justice-Youth
Committee. He became interested in the English Bosrstal system, which
“segregated each young man according to this type and background” so the
offenders can be placed in different institutions with vary treatments and
programs.
• Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey conducted an investigation which concluded
that “abuses were widespread at the school”.
• Lindsey stated that there was “‘a terrific gap between theory and application’
at the school.”
• The Lindsay committee recommended a revision of the programs at school.
There was a definetly need to close the gap between reality and ideal
system.
• California was the best candidate to pass a reform Model Youth Correction
Authority Act from American Law Institute.

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Model of Reform
• Based on the recommendations that Lindeys committee
made Olson appointed Father Edward J. Flanagan to
investigate.
– Flanagan recommended to remove Superintend E.J.
Milne.
• Employees feared charges of abuse and they
stopped disciplining inmates altogether.
• This created a disciplinary chaos and some
inmates escaped from Whittier
• The reformatory failed as well as the
recommendations and it also failed to protect
society.

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Model of Reform
• The approach of Lindsey and Flanagan was “love approach”
• After all the investigations “Olson concluded that a ‘proportion of the boys
sent to Whittier [were] psychopathic delinquents that require[d] a different
and ore scientific treatments and different segregated treatments for the
purpose of handling them than that which would appeal to the moral instinct
by kind handling and by love and affection and the usual humane
considerations that are followed in correcting boys whi are normal’”
• The California Youth Authority Act was passed
– It established the different domains for young delinquents to be placed
in the right place according to their age.
• Minimum age to commit the youths to the Authority was 18 years of
age.
• Youth Authority “reinforced the existing juvenile court model of handling
juvenile delinquency through rehabilitation and treatment, rather than
dramatically changing it”

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Model of Reform
• Youth Authority adhered to scientific approach
• This led to create juvenile justice agencies in Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Texas that followed
California’s model.

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Conclusion
The were many events that led to many investigations in
the California Juvenile Justice system; these
investigations led to a reform of the system that probably
worked for a while; however, the system is not working
today. It was true in past times as it is today.

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Reference
• Mihailoff, Laura. Protecting Our Children: A History of the
California Youth Authority and Juvenile Justice, 1939-
1968. Diss. U of California, Berkeley, 2005. Introduction,
Ch. 1-2.

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