Suit Targets Counties’ Shelters for Children

Thousands of abused and neglected children awaiting foster homes in California are being housed in overcrowded and dangerous conditions in county shelters, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by a public interest law center.

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by the nonprofit Youth Law Center, alleges that the state has not enforced proper standards of care at shelters in nine counties, including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego.

The shelters, such as Los Angeles County’s MacLaren Children’s Center, are designed as temporary refuges for children who are removed from abusive or neglectful homes and are waiting for placement in foster care.

The Youth Law Center filed a formal complaint with the California Department of Social Services in October asking that the shelters be investigated and ordered to stop operating. When the agency failed to respond, the lawsuit was filed against state social services Director Rita Saenz, said Youth Law Center attorney Shannan Wilber.

“Social services has been aware of the dangerous and unconscionable conditions at these facilities for years,” Wilber said.

Some county-run facilities are licensed but many are not. The state adopted a policy in 1985 exempting publicly run shelters from licensing requirements, which the lawsuit contends puts youngsters at risk. In contrast, all private group homes and shelters must be licensed.

Licensing regulations prohibit overcrowding, establish minimum staff qualifications and training levels, strictly limit the use of physical restraints, provide that infants and toddlers receive special developmental care, and detail the privacy and personal rights of children, among other provisions.

State officials said they had not had a chance to review the lawsuit and would not respond in detail. But they said the administration of Gov. Gray Davis should not have to defend policy decisions made under previous governors.

“We’re familiar with the issues and will be working with the Youth Law Center and the counties to review the options; everything is open to discussion,” said Department of Social Services spokeswoman Blanca Barna.

Wilber said it is not uncommon for county shelters to house two or three times the number of children for which they were designed and for children to be held for months, rather than a few hours or days as originally intended. In addition, the suit charges that county-run shelters routinely use excessive force and unwarranted physical restraints.

According to the complaint, children are forced to sleep in hallways or overcrowded rooms, do not receive mental health care and are treated like juvenile offenders even though they are the victims of abuse and neglect.

The MacLaren center, according to the complaint, has a capacity of 125 children but the average daily population during the first part of 2000 reached 152. On one day--April 30--181 children were being held at the facility, the suit said.

“Confinement at MacLaren subjects children to a chaotic, violent and dangerous environment,” the complaint says. “Statistics for the first six months of 2000 show that police were called to MacLaren almost twice a day on average. Since January 2000, at least 53 children have been arrested at MacLaren.”

MacLaren is run by a consortium of county agencies, including the chief administrative office, mental health, probation, education and the Department of Children and Family Services.

Anita Bock, director of the children’s department for about a year, said she had not had a chance to review the lawsuit and could not comment on its specifics. (Counties are not named as defendants.)

Bock acknowledged that overcrowding had been a problem at MacLaren, but she said that conditions have improved recently and that the population generally has been kept to its 125 capacity.

Bock said a lack of adequate foster care in the community had hindered those efforts.

San Diego County’s Polinsky Center is an example of how conditions at the shelters can spiral out of control, according to the suit. The average daily population in June was 231, even though the shelter was built to house 130 children. In April, there was a riot in the adolescent girls unit, with children destroying property, fighting with one another and staff members and barricading themselves in their rooms.

Several girls required medical treatment and 17 were arrested. The cottage where they were housed was built for no more than 30 girls but housed 40. The San Diego County Human Services Agency blamed the violence on overcrowding and predicted that it would recur.

San Diego County officials said they had not seen the suit and declined to respond.

Youth Law Center Executive Director Carole B. Shauffer faulted publicly run shelters for not doing enough to provide such services as counseling and to develop a larger foster home network.

“They are not requiring their social workers to make the effort it takes to connect kids to resources,” she said. “Several reports have shown that being in shelters and extended, repeat stays under conditions that exist in county-run facilities are leading to mental health problems.”