Delays in Release of Detained Youths Decried

Amnesty International, in a letter this week to Los Angeles County supervisors, expressed “serious concern” about allegations that minors as young as 13 have been held for weeks at Juvenile Hall despite court orders that they be freed.

“Whether the failure to ensure the prompt release of these children was due to lack of adequate procedures, resources, training or oversight, or whether it is due to negligence or design, Amnesty International urges that these allegations be taken seriously,” wrote Susan Lee, a director of the London-based human rights group.

The unusual correspondence was sent to Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky on Wednesday, one week after a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 19 minors who, the suit alleges, were wrongfully incarcerated after judges ordered their release.

In an interview Friday, Yaroslavsky said county officials were examining the issue of improper detention of youths months before the lawsuit was filed.

Last summer, he said, officials adopted new regulations that mandate the immediate release of children once a judge has ordered them freed.

“We did have a problem, and the county was well aware of the problem,” Yaroslavsky said. “It was a bureaucratic mess.”

Under the new regulations, he said, juveniles ordered released by a judge are to be freed by 4 p.m. the day of the court order. If they are still in custody after that time, Yaroslavsky said, probation officials are to escort the youths to the Department of Social Services to ensure that they are transferred to a non-jail setting.

“As far as I know, the new protocol has worked as intended,” Yaroslavsky said.

“And we don’t believe we have had any over-detentions” since the new policy took effect.

Attorney Sanford Jossen, who filed the class-action lawsuit, praised county officials for “acknowledging the problem ... and taking action to correct it.”

But Jossen said he would still pursue the lawsuit, adding that as recently as Thursday he was contacted by another teenager who alleged that he had been illegally detained.

“The issue still remains that there were a significant number of kids who fell victim to this problem, and they deserve to be compensated,” Jossen said. “And I see nothing wrong with asking a court to look at this problem and ensure it has been addressed.”

The suit alleges that illegal detentions sometimes occurred because of a “lack of coordination and cooperation” between the Department of Children and Family Services and the Probation Department. In other cases, according to the lawsuit, children’s department employees decided to hold teenagers despite court orders that they be released back to foster care.

“The inappropriate, excessive or unlawful incarceration of children, such as has been alleged in these cases, is a matter of serious concern not only because liberty is a fundamental human right but because incarceration has inherent risks to the physical and mental integrity of children,” Amnesty International’s Lee wrote.

Rob Freer, a researcher at the organization’s Los Angeles office, said Friday that the decision to contact county officials about the issue represents a “fairly rare” step by the group.

Although it has examined allegations of police brutality in Los Angeles and ill treatment of incarcerated juveniles elsewhere in the nation, the letter was the first to be written on the topic of illegally detaining youths beyond their scheduled release dates in the United States, Freer said.