Suit Alleges Juvenile Hall Rights Denied

A prominent prison-rights attorney filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday accusing Orange County Juvenile Hall of keeping youngsters behind bars for too long without a court hearing.

The civil rights suit contends that juveniles are not receiving hearings within 72 hours after their arrest to allow a judge to decide whether they should remain locked up. County officials strongly deny the allegations.

Attorney Richard P. Herman filed the suit in Santa Ana on behalf of a current inmate who alleges his constitutional rights are violated by the practice, which the suit says is widespread.

The delay, Herman said in an interview, means that thousands of children every year are kept locked up inside Juvenile Hall for days before a judge eventually decides they should be allowed home.

“If you have a child who is not going to be held in detention anyway, don’t you want that child home with their parents as soon as possible?” said Herman, one of the plaintiff attorneys in the landmark 1970s suit against the Orange County jail system that resulted in federal oversight. “It’s a systemic fault. . . . There’s no reason for it.”

But Probation Department officials, who run the county’s Juvenile Hall, disputed the claims, saying they have received no other complaints about late detention hearings and stick to the letter of the law.

“This is brand new to us,” Colleene Preciado, the county’s chief deputy probation officer. “I’m not aware of that practice happening.”

Preciado said juveniles are always provided detention hearings within 72 hours but added that the law does not count weekends and holidays.

Even on weekends, she said, a judge is on hand to review cases of incoming juveniles to determine whether there is enough evidence to keep them locked up.

But Herman disagreed, saying the California Supreme Court has made it clear that youngsters have a right to a hearing within three days, whether those are on weekends or not. And current weekend reviews are simply not sufficient, he said, adding that few children are ever released during them.

“It’s not good enough and they know it’s not good enough,” Herman said. “Nobody is ever released. If you hold a real detention hearing, I would say that a majority of the kids are released.”

The county’s Juvenile Hall in Orange houses roughly 450 youngsters, the vast majority of them awaiting trial or other hearings.

Herman said resolving the issue is important because the purpose of juvenile detention is not simply to punish children but to help rehabilitate them. Because of this, it’s crucial that a judge immediately review each case and determine whether the juvenile is better off in custody or home with parents.