Guards’ Chief Backs but Questions CYA Plan

Leaders of the union that represents state correctional officers Monday endorsed the new, more therapeutic approach planned for California’s youth prison system, but said they doubted that it would become a reality.

Mike Jimenez, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., said the Schwarzenegger administration’s model for reform of the juvenile prisons was “a good target” and would make life safer for the 2,800 officers and counselors who are union members.

But Jimenez questioned whether the approach, based on successful programs in Missouri, Colorado and other states, would be well-suited to California’s juvenile offender population, which he called older and more violent.

In addition, a larger, unanswered question hovers over the debate: How will Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a budget gap without raising taxes, pay for a system that will, in his words, give youths “a better chance to succeed in life.”

“So far, I don’t see the willingness or the intestinal fortitude by this administration to move in that direction,” said Jimenez, who visited Missouri’s juvenile prisons last fall and said he was impressed by the program and its results.

The union chief’s comments came as corrections officials filed court documents Monday that described a new vision for the California Youth Authority, which houses 3,300 of the state’s toughest young offenders in eight prisons and two camps.

The filing was in response to a lawsuit that challenged conditions inside the CYA, which independent experts say is plagued by rampant violence and fails in its mission of steering youths toward a crime-free future.

In place of today’s focus on punishment, corrections officials would emphasize intensive counseling and peer group reinforcement to prepare the inmates for life outside.

Monday’s blueprint, which is short on specifics, will be followed by a more detailed plan in November that must be approved by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabrow.

Reaction Monday ranged from enthusiasm by a lawmaker who has been one of CYA’s biggest critics, to frustration over a plan that critics say is short on detail and appears to do little to immediately improve life for youths behind prison walls.

Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who once threatened to push for closure of the CYA, declared herself among the optimists.

“I feel that victory for the youths, for their families and for the people of California is imminent,” she said. “The CYA is itself going to be rehabilitated.”

About 20 parents and other relatives of CYA inmates, as well as leaders of an advocacy group called Books Not Bars, also praised the administration’s intentions during a visit to the Capitol on Monday.

But a spokeswoman, Belinda Griswold, said, “We need to move beyond rhetoric to reality.” She said the group had delivered to Schwarzenegger 3,500 postcards that urged him to close CYA lockups and open small-scale centers in communities closer to offenders’ homes.

In the documents filed Monday, state officials said new institutions may be necessary to create “a truly successful model.”

But they said it would take at least three years to open such facilities. And so far, the only money earmarked for such an undertaking was $3.1 million in the governor’s revised budget.

For attorney Sue Burrell of the Youth Law Center, which has frequently sued the state over CYA conditions, that is not good enough. “I think they have to stop planning and start doing,” Burrell said.