The Region - News from Feb. 25, 1987

State Auditor General Thomas Hayes charged that the California Youth Authority is improperly assigning potentially violent young offenders to minimum-security programs because of incomplete evaluations. In a report to the Legislature, Hayes said such assignments endanger “the public, CYA staff and other wards.” Auditors who prepared the report cited the case of one young prisoner, assigned to a limited-security program, who had been sentenced to the CYA for attempted murder. “He had stabbed his victim three times, damaging the victim’s lungs, kidney and stomach,” the report said, adding that the youth later escaped from the CYA. The audit was based on records of 62 adult inmates who had been involved in escapes and assaults between June 1, 1985, and May 31, 1986.