Report Criticizes Mental Health Care of State’s Young Inmates

Juvenile convicts suffering mental illnesses are often over-medicated and improperly punished and cared for by inadequately trained clinicians who tend to intervene only when crisis strikes, a state-funded report on the California Youth Authority concludes.

The report, obtained by The Times on Tuesday, described a patchwork state system of care that is inconsistent from facility to facility. It cited a failure to track the effects of mind-altering drugs and an over-reliance on punishment -- segregation in a wire-mesh cage, for example -- for youths who need therapy instead.

Though acknowledging that progress had been made during their review of the juvenile penal system, the report’s authors said “the California Youth Authority continues to fall short of meeting many recognized standards of care.”

The report was conducted as part of a class-action lawsuit filed by wards, as young convicts are called, alleging unconstitutional conditions within the Youth Authority, once a national model for rehabilitation of wayward juveniles. Its authors, experts on psychiatry and corrections, were jointly approved by lawyers for the wards and the state, which paid for the review.

The findings drew attention in the Capitol on Tuesday in part because of the suicides last week of two teenagers at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in Ione, east of Sacramento. Deon Whitfield, 17, of Los Angeles and Durrell Taddon Feaster, 18, of Stockton hanged themselves with bedsheets in the cell they shared, authorities said.

“These suicides put a human face on the tragedy of what happens when we do not pay attention to the mental health needs of incarcerated teenagers,” said Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of an oversight committee on corrections. “The Youth Authority has a crisis in its health-care delivery, especially when it comes to meeting mental health needs.”

In addition to reviewing mental health care within the CYA, outside experts also have produced reports on other aspects of the juvenile penal system, from education to violence, gangs and rehabilitation. Romero said those reports would provide fodder for a hearing she will convene in February on the system and what can be done to improve it.

At the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, a senior official called the mental health report “pretty ugly” and acknowledged problems.

“We know that many of the observations are substantially correct,” Assistant Secretary Tip Kindel said. “It’s another thing the secretary [Roderick Q. Hickman] inherited. We realize these are things we need to get our arms around now.”

Kindel said Hickman -- recently appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- had ordered the CYA’s new director, Walter Allen III, to review the reports and devise a plan to correct the problems on a “quick timeframe.”

At the same time, Hickman is working with the Department of Corrections to tackle a list of woes besetting the adult system, problems that came to light during a special Senate hearing co-chaired by Romero and Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) last week.

Whistle-blowers at the hearing charged that the prison system was suffering from a “code of silence” that was preventing guards from reporting wrongdoing. Also this month, a federal court investigator issued a scathing report concluding that the department had lost the ability to investigate and discipline rogue officers, in part because the guards’ union held sway over decisions at the highest levels of management.

The CYA report was based on inspections and interviews with a wide variety of staff and wards at nine juvenile facilities, including Preston, where the suicides occurred. It was written by Eric Trupin and Dr. Raymond Patterson, who have evaluated mental health care at correctional facilities across the country.

Among findings that most alarmed them was the overuse of “chemical restraints,” or drugs, on wards, “particularly when administered to youth who are not presenting a threat to staff or other youth and are being non-compliant.”

“Psychiatric evaluations are cursory and do not meet accepted professional standards,” the report said, and “measurement of the effect of the medication on target symptoms is consistently missing.”

Overall, the report’s authors expressed “grave concerns relative to the competence of the psychiatric staff.”

Founded in 1941, the Youth Authority houses 4,600 inmates in 11 institutions and four camps.