1. Sacramento
City Sociology
Club
Presents:
Maddening Injustice:
Moving Away From
the CYA
Hosted by Jason Albright

4. Established in 1941
The CaliforniaYouth
CorrectionAuthority Act
of 1941 represented the
first time an elected
legislative body declared
purpose of juvenile
corrections to be
rehabilitation instead of
punishment.
Before the law,
California’s juvenile
justice system was
rightfully described as
disjointed, under-funded,
and given to brutality.

5. Now:
 "The CaliforniaYouth Authority will contribute to the
protection of society from the consequences of criminal
activity by providing youthful offender rehabilitation
through education, training, treatment, and parole services
that provide a continuum of care and assist with the
reintegration of youthful offenders into society.”
Then:
 "The CaliforniaYouth Authority will contribute to the public
safety of the citizens of California by maintaining a safe and
secure therapeutic environment, which will result in the
optimum delivery of rehabilitative services for wards
charged to its care.“ –from DJJWebsite
 CaliforniaYouthAuthority
is now the Division of Juvenile Justice
under theCalifornia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

7.  Juvenile wards of the state are confined within the CaliforniaYouth
Authority (CYA) for rehabilitation, training and treatment.
(Welf. & lnst. Code § 1700.)
 Rehabilitation is impossible when the classroom is a cage and wards live
in constant fear of physical and sexual violence from CY A staff and other
wards.
 Treatment is impossible while forced administration of psychotropic
medication is used as a tool to control behavior, and when psychologists
and psychiatrists are not available to the vast majority of wards.
 The severe, unconstitutional and illegal problems conditions in the CYA
are not new and they are not a secret.

8. Access to lawyers or judicial system
Assault/abuse by residents/inmates
Assault/abuse by staff
Confinement/isolation
Disciplinary procedures
Disciplinary segregation
Education
Food service / nutrition / hydration
Mail
Phone
Protective custody
Recreation / Exercise
Rehabilitation
Religious programs / policies
Physical Restraints
Chemical Restraints
Sex w/ staff; sexual
harassment by staff
Sexual abuse by
residents/inmates
Strip search policy
Suicide prevention
Totality of conditions
Visiting
Dental care
Medical care
General Mental health care,

9. “In violation of California laws and
federal laws, the Sacramento County
Juvenile Halls are not being operated as
safe and supportive homelike
environments and are instead treated
in many respects as penal institutions.
See Cal. WeIf. & Inst. Code §850.” Dec.
19, 2006

10.  A 14-year-old girl identified as G.F. was put into
solitary in a cell for approximately 100 days over
the last year, with no education services and
short breaks outside only two times a day.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attention
deficit, the girl was removed from the juvenile
hall county school and put into solitary, with
officials failing to conduct a mandatory inquiry
into whether her behavior was related to her
disability.

11.  W.B. a 17-year-old boy — already found
mentally incompetent by a juvenile court —
was put into solitary for more than two
months out of a four-month period. He began
hearing voices, talking to himself, thought he
was being poisoned and broke down into a
psychotic episode and was hospitalized for
three weeks before being returned to the
hall.

12.  Q.G., 17, has been in full-time special education
since third grade and has diagnosed behavior
problems. Before entering juvenile hall, he was
on a special education plan with specific daily
behavior intervention services. After becoming a
ward, he was put into general education
classes and his behavior plan eliminated and he
was marked “absent” from classes when put into
solitary 30 times. “While in solitary confinement,
Q.G. is denied the opportunity to go to school
and receives zero credits for the time he has
missed,” the suit says.

13.  “Unlike county juvenile
halls, the state system
operates under a court
order that prohibits all
forms of isolation.”

14.  The practice is often
hidden, the advocates
say, because there is no
consistent definition of
solitary confinement
and because juvenile
prison officials use
terms like "temporary
detention" and
"behavior treatment
program.“
But solitary remains
solitary, and can last a
month or more, during
which youths are
locked in their cells,
alone, for 23 or even 24
hours a day.

15.  True total is likely to be
over 100,000.
 Figures do not include
local jails, immigrant
detention centers,
juvenile facilities
or military facilities.
 Note the date… the
most recent federal
recidivism study was
done in 1994, a
DECADE earlier.

16.  Prisoners with
mental illness or
developmental
disabilities
 Children who
misbehave or who
are deemed to be in
need of “protection”
 Anyone who
complains of abuse
by prison officials

17.  social withdrawal
 panic attacks
 irrational rage
 loss of impulse control
 paranoia
 hypersensitivity to external
stimuli
 severe and chronic
depression
 difficulties with concentration
and memory
 perceptual distortions and
illusions

18.  Research since the
1970s shows that
that solitary
confinement alters
neural and therefore
psychological states.
 In California, about 5
percent of all
prisoners are in
solitary—but up to 70
percent of suicides
take place there.
 Teens are 19 times
more likely to
commit suicide when
placed in isolation

19.  “Begin by over-crowding the prisons with unprecedented
numbers of drug-users and petty offenders, and make
sentences longer across the board.
 “Dismantle many of the rehabilitation and education
programs so prisoners are relatively idle.
 “Add to the mix a large number of prisoners suffering from
serious mental illness.
 “Obstruct and restrict visiting, thus cutting prisoners off
even more from the outside world.
 “Respond to the enlarging violence and psychosis by
segregating a growing proportion of prisoners in isolative
settings such as super-maximum security units”....

20.  “Ignore the many traumas in the pre-incarceration
histories of prisoners as well as traumas such as prison
rape that take place inside the prisons.
 “Discount many cases of mental disorder as ‘malingering.’
 “Label out-of-control prisoners ‘psychopaths.’
 “Deny the ‘malingerers’ and ‘psychopaths’ mental health
treatment and leave them warehoused in cells within
super maximum security units.
 “Watch the recidivism rate rise and proclaim the rise a
reflection of a new breed of incorrigible criminals and
‘super predators.’”

21.  Administrative Maximum
 Special Housing Unit
 Security Housing Unit
 Restricted Housing Unit
 Intensive Management Unit
 Behavioral Management Unit
 Communications Management Unit

22.  Disciplinary or Punitive Segregation:
Punishment for violating prison rules
 Administrative Segregation: Based on gang
affiliation, political beliefs, original crime, or
other classifications
 Involuntary Protective Custody:
“Protection” for vulnerable people in prison

24. http://www.clearinghouse.net/chDocs/public/JI-
CA-0012-9000.pdf (everything timeline)

25.  Length of stay in juvenile hall vs. state
 Cost of county vs. cost of state supervision
 Juvenile hall conditions
 Lack of regulation in private group homes

26.  http://solitarywatch.com/facts/solitary-101-
powerpoint/

27.  RECAIMING FUTURES
 RECAIMING FUTURES.org
 National Center forYouth Law in Oakland
 http://www.youthlaw.org/
 PRISON LAW OFFICE
 http://www.prisonlaw.com/
 Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice
 http://www.cjcj.org/index.html
 ACLU
https://www.aclu.org/
 Be a pen pal…be a visitor!

28.  Human Services Projects DBATeenTriumph
5361 PershingAve Ste H
Stockton,CA 95207
Phone: (209) 477-9177
Fax: (209) 477-4667
TeenTriumphTreatment Program
TeenTriumph is an RCL 12 residential treatment program specializing in
the treatment of behaviorally challenged youth between the ages of 12
and 18.The program is designed to address the treatment and behavior
management needs of emotionally traumatized, deprived and disturbed
youth and to provide intensive therapy and psychiatric management.The
program accepts those having been adjudicated by the juvenile courts
and declared wards underW & I 602, and similar profiles underW & I 300
andAB 26.5.