Juvenile Hall Care Lacking, Expert Testifies : Youth: Crowded conditions interfere with the basics and lead to violence, a consultant in ACLU lawsuit says.

Chronic crowding at Juvenile Hall is hamstringing efforts to provide even basic services to the hundreds of youngsters housed there and contributes to violence, an expert testified as a Superior Court hearing on conditions at the county facility opened Wednesday.

Consultant John DeMuro, who studied the facility as a witness for the American Civil Liberties Union, said juveniles sleep on mattresses on the floor, and that staff members are overwhelmed. More than 400 teen-agers and pre-teens are sometimes jammed into a space built for 219.

According to legal papers filed in connection with a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, “juveniles do not enjoy basic necessities such as sufficient food supplies, sanitary conditions and adequate living quarters. Rehabilitation, counseling and educational services are limited and inadequate. The overcrowding has resulted in an increase in physical and sexual assaults, including gang-related violence.”

DeMuro told of one youngster, placed in a room with two more-hardened offenders, who was sodomized and forced to commit oral copulation.

“In a well-run hall, with good classification, first of all, you wouldn’t have three kids in a room, and you wouldn’t have . . . a kid doing weekend time with hardened offenders,” said DeMuro, former commissioner of children and youth for the state of Pennsylvania.

DeMuro’s testimony opened the first day of hearings in a lawsuit filed last year by the local ACLU chapter, which claims that crowding at Juvenile Hall violates the basic rights of the children housed there.

“With the kinds of numbers in the hall, it’s impossible for the staff to ensure the safety and health and welfare of the kids,” said Alex Landon, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the class action suit against the county.

The suit asks Superior Court Judge Robert O’Neill to impose a cap on the Juvenile Hall population and to mandate an adequate staff, the provision of mental health programs and a special master to monitor compliance with remedies.

Because of the large population, staff members too often rely on locking children in their rooms to accomplish simple tasks such as holding meetings, DeMuro said. Juveniles complained that nursing care is sparse, and children at the bottom of the Juvenile Hall pecking order receive clothing in poorer condition, and shoes are frequently stolen, he said.

DeMuro said youngsters charged with committing a sexual offense are often victims of sex offenses themselves and do not belong at Juvenile Hall. Chronic runaways should also be in other programs, he said.

The ACLU has filed two other lawsuits that have resulted in the imposition of caps on inmate populations at the downtown and outlying jails. The Juvenile Hall suit demands better care for residents of the facility because state standards call for the county to provide a “homelike environment” as much as possible.

In its defense, the county will attempt to show that Juvenile Hall, although exceeding the California Youth Authority’s “rated capacity” of 219 juveniles, nevertheless provides a safe environment, adequate food, clothing and showers, an education, and medical and mental health services, said Deputy County Counsel Nate Northup.

“We are in compliance with what the youth authority says we must provide,” Northup said. In addition, the county is seeking to expand alternatives to placement there, including electronic monitoring, home placement and placement in honor camps, he said.

A $16.9-million expansion and renovation of the facility, begun in August, 1990, will raise Juvenile Hall’s capacity to 339 when work is completed by next summer. Even then, however, the facility will be crowded, Landon said.

Intended as a temporary residence for youngsters before and during their trials, Juvenile Hall has become home to many youngsters who have been sentenced but await placement in crowded youth camps or schools, Northup said.

The hearing is expected to continue for several weeks.