Minors In Custody to Get Better Care..SB SUN 062206) Accord Affects Kids with Special Needs..

This is a super thing. Children in trouble are just that. In trouble. they don't need to be subjected to beatings in the Hall until they are bleeding within their bladder's that is not right. Look I am not some Idiot, I know that some of these children are Killers! They have been placed in the Hall for Killing and Gang
violence that is beyond reproach, but when do we stop the violence.

When they are in Jail or Prison. because it doesn't stop in there. We all know that Juv. Hall was started to allow the children of the US to have a chance at a better life then to be in and out of Jail all their life. Some it has worked, just the sight of being in Juvenile Hall has cured their appetite for Crime. Others it has started it to feed for more. I don't have any kind words for those children!!

So, I just hope that the kinder Gentler approach will work and some of these kids will have a chance at a free good life.

BSRancher

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Minors in custody to get better care
Accord affects kids with special needs
Emily Sachs, Staff Writer

A newly reached settlement will force San Bernardino County to spend millions of dollars to improve its treatment of juvenile offenders with special needs.

Changes will include providing mandatory mental or developmental screening of all youngsters taken into custody, treatment while they are in juvenile hall and continued services after their release.

The settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson in Riverside.

"To their credit, the county listened to us," said Paula Pearlman, deputy director of advocacy programs for the Disability Rights Legal Center in Los Angeles.

Her group filed the initial federal class-action lawsuit in 2002 on behalf of six teens with mental illnesses and learning disabilities who were incarcerated in San Bernardino County's juvenile-hall system.

One of them, a 16-year-old, sustained such a severe beating and pepper spraying by guards at San Bernardino Juvenile Hall that he had blood in his urine. He had an IQ of 76, six points higher than the benchmark for mental retardation.

Pearlman said the boy was later suicidal as a result of the incident.

The other teens made a variety of other c laims, including that they were denied special-education services and necessary medication or were not being properly treated as a result of their disabilities.

Jerry Harper, director of the San Bernardino County Probation Department, called the agreement a "constructive" settlement.

"Frankly, the sides were not that far apart," he said.

County supervisors must still approve a spending plan, which Harper said will amount to "several millions of dollars."

Kent Paxton, director of the county Children's Network, which monitors child welfare and responsible agencies in the county, said the changes are long overdue. The majority of youngsters in the juvenile-hall system have a history of substantiated child abuse and neglect or prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol, or both.

Troubled beginnings can make way for attachment disorders or learning disabilities, Paxton said, adding that simple cause-and-effect thinking is often lacking.

"A lot of these kids don't even know why they're in juvenile hall," he said.

The lawsuit sought injunctive relief, which means it isn't designed to win money for personal injury but instead seeks to change policy.

"It's using the laws as a tool for social justice," Pearlman said.

As part of the settlement, the county denies any wrongdoing in connection

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with the teens' accusations.

One of the teens, however, will receive $34,900 in nominal damages; the other five will each get $3,000. The attorneys involved in the lawsuit also will receive $500,000 to cover their costs.

Pearlman said the boys originally involved now range in age from 15 to 22. Two are in juvenile custody and one is in jail. Two others live with their parents, and one is living on his own.

"Some fared better than others," Pearlman said.

The proposed changes include increasing the number of staffers and the training they receive. There are 550 to 600 juveniles in custody or in treatment at any time at the three sites in San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Apple Valley.

In-custody educational programs also will be improved. Talks still are ongoing w ith the county Superintendent of Schools Office.

The mandates will also require juvenile-hall workers to fully investigate every reported use-of-force incident. There was a lack of follow through on them, Pearlman said.

A probation administrator will be a full-time compliance officer and ombudsman. In addition, Pearlman's agency will meet regularly with the county to ensure the changes are being made.

Paxton said a lack of resources, especially on the part of the county Department of Behavioral Health, brought the county to the point of needing the intervention.

A pilot program to screen all at-risk newborns for mental and developmental problems in the High Desert will expand countywide within a year. A specialized Mental Health Court program has begun to steer selected youth in juvenile hall to mandatory treatment in place of traditional probation.

Some mental-health specialists are already in place at juvenile-hall sites, but until now have been only responding to critical incidents, such as suicide attempts.

"It's unfortunate that a lawsuit has to occur," Paxton said of the changes, "but sometimes that's what it takes."