Court’s Ruling Might Change the Way Jails Are Handling Minors : RICK MEYER / Los Angeles Times

A Superior Court ruling this week that prohibits Norwalk Sheriff’s deputies from chaining juveniles to a metal rail near adults could lead to sweeping changes in the way children are treated in Southeast-area county jails, officials of a public advocacy law firm said.

The ruling Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Jack M. Newman bars the Sheriff’s Department from its longtime practice of bringing children into the jail through an adult prisoner entrance, guiding them through an adult prisoner hallway, and seating them or chaining them in a booking area for adults.

It was the third victory this year for the nonprofit Public Justice Foundation, which has won similar rulings in cases involving the Long Beach city Jail and the Lennox sheriff’s station jail. Two other cases have been filed by the group against law enforcement agencies in Northern California.

Newman, who toured the Norwalk jail with reporters on Monday, ruled that handcuffing juveniles to a wall rail in a 6-foot by 10-foot adult booking area violates a state law against detaining juveniles with adult offenders. Newman stressed, however, that it is not illegal to chain juveniles to rails with handcuffs, saying it is sometimes done to control violent minors.

Attorney Timothy McFlynn said the foundation, which has spearheaded a statewide attack on agencies that jail children in adult facilities, expects Newman’s ruling to prompt the county to dramatically alter the way children are handled not only in Norwalk, but in Lakewood, Pico Rivera and other sheriff’s stations.

McFlynn, executive director of the organization, predicted that when Sheriff Sherman Block reviews the evidence in the Norwalk case, “he will see that what we have asked is human and sensible and legally required.”

Not Ready to Comment

Deputy Rick Adams, a spokesman for Block, said the department is not ready to comment on whether it will change its practices at sheriff’s stations that are not involved in the suits.

However, he said, effective immediately, children brought to the Norwalk station will be taken through a separate entry door to a private interview room “which is not in line of sight or within normal hearing of the (adult) booking areas.”

McFlynn said the county has allowed children held for minor offenses to be exposed to hardened criminals simply because it is easier than taking the children to interview rooms, a cafeteria, or to a detective’s desk while their case is being processed.

A county jailer in Norwalk confirmed that more than 1,000 of the 1,600 juveniles the jail handles each year are brought in for minor offenses and are released to their parents without being formally charged.

“What happens when a child is exposed to drug dealers, violent criminals, and the harshness of adult jail?” McFlynn said. “There is a tendency for a jaded county counsel or sheriff’s deputy to say, ‘Ah, these kids are gang kids and nothing’s going to faze them.’ But the vast majority are having their first handcuffing, their first trip to a jail, first fingerprinting. It’s a very stressful experience for a 14-year-old kid.”

Offer to Sell Drugs

In one of three declarations taken by McFlynn from children jailed in Norwalk, a teen-ager said he was sitting, handcuffed and chained to a steel bar on the wall, next to an adult who was also chained.

“The adult chained to the wall right next to him offered to sell him drugs,” McFlynn said. “That’s a really frightening exposure for a kid. On a Friday night, you can see bloody people, people vomiting, transvestites, people who are so coked up they can’t stand up. Why does a child have to see that?”

At the tour Monday, the judge walked through the tidy, small jail, whose two cells rarely hold more than 10 or 12 prisoners between them. Because it was morning, the jail was still empty. Signs posted on doors and walls warned adults and children not to talk to one another.

Interview Room

During the tour, the judge found nothing wrong with the jail’s cell area. However, he suggested that one of the station’s interview rooms might be used to book juveniles.

Lt. Robert Mirabella said the jailers take special steps to treat children humanely, and are proud of their record in handling juveniles, the vast majority of whom do not need to be chained to the wall and are, he said, “basically decent kids.”

“We’ve never had any scuffles between adults and children, no incidents at all,” Mirabella said. “We put them in the booking area so that they are in view of supervising personnel.”

McFlynn said that if the county does not institute countywide changes, his organization is prepared to prove that the same illegal practices are commonly used

in Sheriff’s Department jails in Pico Rivera, Lakewood, Carson and elsewhere.

“We know which of them are doing the same illegal practices, and if they don’t conform all of their substations one by one, they will all be sued,” McFlynn said.

String of Victories

He noted his string of recent victories, including a ruling in January barring the Long Beach police from holding abused or neglected children in jail, and prohibiting the police from detaining minors in cells next to adults. And in May, a judge prohibited the county from holding children in the Lennox station unless a Juvenile Court judge determines there are no other facilities available.

Deputy County Counsel Frederick R. Bennett, the attorney in the Norwalk, Long Beach and Lennox cases, had unsuccessfully argued that the juveniles were not technically detained with adults, but were held there less than 24 hours, under deputy supervision, until they could be returned to their parents or sent to the proper facility. Although Bennett is employed by the county, he was brought into the Long Beach case at the request of city officials.

“Why a couple of young hotshots can come in here and tell us they know a better way to run a jail--it’s crazy,” he said in an interview.

The Norwalk controversy has set off a war of words between McFlynn and Bennett. During the jail tour on Monday, Bennett accused attorneys from the Public Justice Foundation of whipping up a controversy without producing a single citizen who has complained about the county jailing practices.

“Why don’t you ask them about the half million dollars in attorneys’ fees they’ll get out of this?” Bennett responded sharply when asked what had prompted the suits. “They haven’t been able to give us a single name of a child or a parent who is unhappy about the county’s handling of juveniles,” he said. “Their case against Norwalk includes three declarations from juveniles, but they’re all John Does with no names. So tell me, who’s complaining?”

‘Cheap Shot’

McFlynn called Bennett’s comments on the prospect of large attorneys’ fees “a cheap shot. He’s a sore loser because we’ve beat him . . . literally every time we’ve been to court.”

He said the county is racking up potentially huge costs because Bennett refused McFlynn’s offer to negotiate over the Norwalk matter without going to court. McFlynn said he and other attorneys in the case have received no fees and will not seek fees until they prevail in their cases against the county and Northern California law enforcement agencies.

“If we are the prevailing party, we can apply for court-awarded attorneys’ fees at the end of the rainbow,” he said. “The cost to the county will be the cost of poor defense, making us jump through every court hoop instead of sitting down and working this out outside of court--and that’s Mr. Bennett’s doing.”

In Tuesday’s ruling, Newman declared all adult areas of the jail off limits to juveniles. However, at Bennett’s urging, the judge agreed that the county could continue to admit minors through the adult entrance if their parents request it, or if the minor is violent, drunk or on drugs.

Remains in Effect

Newman’s order remains in effect until the case goes to trial. Both sides told the judge they would seek an early trial date.

Bennett said after the hearing that he may appeal the ruling. He told reporters that lost and “worried” children are taken to the station’s coffee room until their situation is resolved, but those accused of serious crimes are locked in cells. Imprisonment or handcuffing is necessary to protect the station’s staff, he said.

“A large number of these kids are 17, 16, and 15, many to whom violence is no stranger,” he told Newman. “There is little difference between them and their adult counterparts.”

He said, however, that no staff member has ever been injured by a juvenile inmate.