Court Bans Sheriff’s Mixing of Juvenile, Adult Prisoners

A Superior Court judge on Tuesday ordered complete “sight and sound” separation of juveniles and adults in the booking room of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Norwalk Station. The ruling was hailed by the Public Justice Foundation as another victory in its statewide campaign to end what it calls the “barbaric” practice of locking up children with their elders in local jails.

Frederick R. Bennett, principal deputy counsel for Los Angeles County, said he will appeal the ruling by Judge Jack M. Newman but said he was “not terribly dissatisfied” with the decision.

He said he will appeal to allow a higher court to “clarify” the intent and meaning of the state Welfare and Institutions Code, which prohibits contact between juveniles and adults in booking rooms and holding cells.

Timothy McFlynn, executive director of the Santa Monica-based Public Justice Foundation, said he assumed that “based on today’s injunction, the sheriff will bring his practices (in holding and booking juveniles) into conformity with the law” at all 21 department stations.

May 1 Order

Sheriff Sherman Block was out of town and could not be reached for comment, according to aides. However, Bennett said the sheriff had implemented procedures to keep juveniles and adults separate after a May 1 order that the department stop locking up juveniles and adults in the Lennox Station.

“The sheriff has always attempted to comply with the law,” Bennett said. However, McFlynn told reporters that “we are looking at a whole array of other sheriff’s facilities--Pico Rivera (Station) violates the law, Carson violates the law, Lakewood violates the law.”

In granting the injunction, Newman said it is his conclusion “that the statute is intended to be strictly construed to require separation of adults from juveniles and to prevent sight and sound contacts.”

He ordered the Sheriff’s Department to establish a separate booking desk for juveniles and to use a different entrance in bringing them into the station to avoid exposing them to adult prisoners.

He added, however, that after a tour of the Norwalk Station on Monday, he was impressed with the Sheriff’s Department’s “conscientiousness and seriousness of intent in treating juveniles appropriately.”

‘Chaining Children’

In its suit, the foundation had charged deputies with “chaining children to the walls” at Norwalk.

The judge said Tuesday that juveniles may be handcuffed and shackled whenever such action is appropriate. McFlynn said he was not challenging handcuffing, which is permissible under state law.

Newman’s ruling paralleled that of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Warren Deering, who issued a similar order Jan. 10 forbidding contact between adults and juveniles at the Long Beach Jail.