Youth Prisons to Stop Use of Extended Isolation

Ending a practice dubbed inhumane by critics, the director of the California Youth Authority said Wednesday that young inmates who misbehave will no longer be isolated 23 hours a day in barren segregation cells.

Walter Allen III offered no details of how prison officers will manage troublesome youths who are now sent to special detention units and deprived of all privileges for an average of 60 to 90 days.

But after members of the Senate Rules Committee called the practice of near-round-the-clock confinement in 6-by-8-foot cells barbaric, Allen said that, “As of today ... it is over.”

“We are going to change our way of doing business,” Allen said. “We’re going to change the conditions of confinement.”

Allen’s comments came as the committee met to consider whether to confirm him as director of the troubled CYA, which houses 4,300 inmates in 11 prisons and camps on an annual budget of about $391 million.

After an hourlong hearing, the panel voted 4 to 0 to endorse his appointment by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The committee’s action means that Allen, 54, is all but certain to win endorsement by the full Senate soon.

Attorneys who have demanded an end to the 23-hour-a-day confinement said they were encouraged by Allen’s announcement, but uncertain what change it would bring.

“If he means that kids are no longer going to be locked up for very long, both in terms of hours in their cell and number of days, then it’s a good thing,” said Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit firm that has sued the state over conditions in the CYA.

“But you have to have some plan to deal with inmates creating problems. The question is, will their approach be punitive or therapeutic?”

The detention cells are just one area of controversy plaguing the agency. Once a national model, the CYA in the last year has come under increasing fire from legislators, parents and activists for failing to rehabilitate juvenile offenders -- or even tend their basic medical needs and keep them safe from violence.

The criticism was fueled by the January suicides of two teenagers at the youth prison in Ione, southeast of Sacramento. Deon Whitfield, 17, of Los Angeles and Durrell Feaster, 18, of Stockton hanged themselves with bedsheets, raising the CYA’s inmate suicide toll to 15 since 1996.

At the time of their deaths, Feaster and Whitfield were on “23 and 1” status, occupying the sort of segregation cell that became the focus of Wednesday’s hearing.

Under the practice, youths are placed in cells with nothing but a toilet, a sink and a narrow concrete bunk. Deprived of visiting, recreation and other normal privileges, they remain in the cells 23 hours a day, emerging in handcuffs only for a shower, a change of boxer shorts and a brief group session with a teacher or counselor.

The CYA’s use of the restrictive units for stays lasting up to 90 days has been harshly criticized -- and is far in excess of what is common in other states. The “severe isolation is antithetical to sound treatment practices” and “produces illness and hostility,” one expert said in a recent report.

Last week, Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) visited the CYA prison in Chino and talked with youths in detention. She said one teenager had been locked up continuously for 200 days in a cell illuminated by a “strange, depressing blue light that shines continuously, all day and all night.”

Romero said that when she approached the sliver of window in the cell’s steel door to talk with the youth, “he recoiled at first at seeing a human being.... 200 days straight to me is amazing,” Romero said. “It defies rehabilitation.”

Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) agreed: “You treat somebody like an animal, they’re going to come out like an animal.... Shame on us for letting this stuff happen under the Davis administration, under the Wilson administration.”

Allen said the practice is not authorized by CYA policy but was adopted over the years as a response to fighting and other problems. He said that from now on, he will ensure that youths in detention get out of their cells “a lot more than one hour a day.”

As for his other priorities, Allen said he wants to dramatically cut the size of living units to no more than 25 per dormitory. Last week, he visited two states that have won national accolades for their approach to juvenile justice -- Missouri and Texas.

“They are proof that the smaller living units work,” Allen said in an interview. “So we’re going to take that to heart and see what will work with our population here in California.”

One of Allen’s immediate challenges is finalizing a legal settlement with Specter and other lawyers suing over prison conditions they call unconstitutional. While an agreement is near, talks have been stalled by disagreement over the selection of a court-appointed special master to oversee reforms.

Those reforms probably will reflect the findings of a team of experts hired by the state to document problems in the agency. Their findings, released in February, assailed the system on all fronts, including the decrepit condition of its facilities and a level of violence described as “off the charts.” The experts also said the CYA’s heavy use of Mace to control fighting was unheard of elsewhere in the country.

At the confirmation hearing, 10 people spoke in support of Allen, and no one was opposed. But those familiar with the system’s problems say it will take considerable political muscle -- and support from Schwarzenegger -- to turn around the CYA.

Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) made a quip reflecting the challenge facing Allen. “Of all the appointments in state government,” he said, “you get this one? Who in the governor’s office did you [tick] off?”

A former mayor of Covina who remains on the City Council, Allen spent 28 years in law enforcement before his appointment in December. Married with a grown son, he will earn $123,255 a year as CYA director.

Also Wednesday, the committee voted to confirm Matthew Cate as head of the office of inspector general, which investigates wrongdoing in state prisons. Since 1996, Cate has been a supervising deputy attorney general at the state Department of Justice, where he has managed the prosecution of political corruption cases.

Cate will investigate allegations of misconduct, perform audits and special reviews requested by legislators, and follow up on tips from whistle-blowers and the public.

He will report directly to the governor and earn $123,255 annually.