S.F. to Seek Alternative to State’s Youth Prisons

SAN FRANCISCO —  Saying the California Youth Authority “is no place to send our children,” Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that a newly formed task force will “ensure that none of San Francisco’s children will be sent” to the state’s youth prison system.

The agency has come under fire for keeping detainees in wire-mesh cages, overmedicating and pepper-spraying offenders and using excessive physical restraints. Concerns were underscored by a videotaped beating of inmates by counselors and the deaths of four inmates since January. Two were found hanging by bedsheets, the third died after ingesting poison and the fourth was found dead last month of still-undetermined causes.

A handful of counties -- including San Francisco -- have called for a temporary moratorium on sending youths to the CYA, and officials from about 20 counties have toured facilities to check on their wards.

But Newsom, who made his comments Thursday during his State of the City address, appears to be the first to convene a task force to devise a permanent alternative for local offenders. Only 41 San Francisco youths are incarcerated in the system.

CYA spokeswoman Sarah Ludeman said that under its new director the agency was “addressing concerns that have been raised regarding program deficiencies.... The Youth Authority encourages all counties to visit our facilities and check on the offenders that have been committed to us. To our knowledge most of the counties that have toured our facilities have been satisfied by the treatment” of their wards.