Latest Escape Uncovers Concerns at Juvenile Hall

Sensored razor wires are tripped so often that workers dismiss them as they would annoying car alarms. Improperly installed door locks are jimmied by juvenile detainees. Emergency phones and walkie-talkies are constantly on the fritz.

These are just some of the problems, say workers and union officials, that have led to escapes--two in the last two months--from Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.

“Our job is to maintain a safe and secure environment,” said Lee Wax, a union leader with Local 685, which represents about two-thirds of the 800 probation officers and staff members at the northeast San Fernando Valley complex. “But that environment is being threatened on a daily basis and no one in management seems to care.”

Pointing to the tall, red brick redoubts and razor wire ringing the juvenile complex, Wax said working conditions had been deteriorating long before the early morning hours of March 10, when inmate Kevin Ruben Gilliam, 17, used a computer mouse to break his dorm window and climb over a wall to freedom.

Gilliam of Los Angeles was facing a possible life sentence two days later on three counts each of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

In addition to equipment failures, workers complain that youths who physically assault probation officers are not brought up on additional criminal charges.

Under the constraints of a zero-tolerance policy, a worker who puts his hands on a young offender can expect a disciplinary hearing and suspension, even when it is a case of self-defense, said Ralph Miller, president of Local 685. Workers usually are fired for the offense.

“The burden of proof is on us, not these kids, including the gangbangers and most violent criminals,” he said.

Union leaders say this partly explains why workers tried to coax Gilliam down from the wall instead of grabbing him. Gilliam ignored the pleas and jumped down to a waiting car.

Billy Burkert, the Probation Department’s detention chief, acknowledged problems with equipment at the complex but said the department was working to resolve those issues.

As for physical violence against staff members, Burkert said the department investigates every incident and brings charges against juveniles when warranted.

“Even when a staff member may be injured inadvertently during a use-of-force situation, it may not be enough for the district attorney to file a case,” he said. “One aspect that is lost on people is the fact that probation advocates for children.”

Built in 1965, the juvenile hall in Sylmar is one of three complexes in Los Angeles County that serve as detention centers for minors. The others are Central and Los Padrinos juvenile halls.

The Sylmar center was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes and has undergone millions of dollars of renovation. It currently holds more than 500 youths, many with serious criminal backgrounds, Burkert said.

Yet, rehabilitation remains a key goal of probation officials.

“We are trying to balance our programs with our security,” he said. “We have to protect the community and serve the court. But these kids are someone’s sons or daughters. They are not animals.”

Wax said he has no problem with turning around good kids, but it does not excuse indifference and neglect.

There have been eight escape attempts from Sylmar in the last three years, according to the Probation Department, but employees say the total is double that number.

Officials said Gilliam was the second juvenile in two months to break out of detention dorms in the northwest corner of the complex.

Although Gilliam could have been held in newer, more-secure dorms, probation officers decided not to place him there because the doors to those rooms were being jimmied by detainees.

Juvenile hall workers also said that debris blown by high winds often gets caught in the razor wire and trips sensitive alarm systems to the point that they sometimes ignore the warnings. Emergency phones and walkie-talkies often do not work, the workers said. Probation officers could have apprehended Gilliam, Wax said, had they been able to operate a back gate next to where Gilliam was crouching on the wall. Instead, they had to run halfway around the exterior of the compound.

“They had an opportunity to run this kid down,” Wax said. “But they had to go out the front, and by the time they got there, he was long gone.”