By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
OHIO - Ohio’s juvenile-corrections system has been troubled for years, but never has its flaws been laid bare so clearly as in a report issued yesterday that labeled it excessively violent, overcrowded and understaffed.
Further, independent fact-finder Fred Cohen concluded that the practice of isolating youth offenders in cells similar to those in the Ohio Penitentiary at Youngstown, the state’s “supermax” prison for adults, is unconstitutional and “should immediately cease.”
Juvenile offenders are placed in isolation too often and for too long, Cohen said.
His report, filed as part of a pending settlement in a 3-year-old federal class-action lawsuit against the state, also was highly critical of inadequate education, health-care and mental-health services for the 1,788 youths in eight state juvenile facilities.
“There are a number of deficiencies,” said Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati attorney representing all juveniles in the system. “We consider it an emergency. We hope we have the attention of the highest levels of state government.”
Tom Strickrath, a veteran of the adult prison system who took over at the Department of Youth Services three years ago, said that’s certainly the case with Gov. Ted Strickland taking a personal role in re-examining the system.
“I generally agree with the report,” Strickrath said. “In many ways, it supports the broad array of changes we’re making.
“We are too quick to use force on kids, and we should not have to use as much isolation.”
Strickrath said he’s been systematically addressing most problems cited, but he said the report “will be the catalyst for taking things to the next level.”
The next step will be settlement discussions between the state and Gerhardstein’s team, under the direction of U.S. District Court Magistrate Terence C. Kemp.
The state system handles youths 11 to 20 years old convicted on a variety of charges. Nine of 10 are male. It costs the state about $80,000 a year for every juvenile inmate. Last year, state officials took the unusual step of agreeing to settle Gerhardstein’s lawsuit. Both sides agreed to have an independent fact-finder assess the situation before moving forward on a settlement.
“We could spend years of costly pretrial litigation, depositions and go through a protracted trial and we’d probably be at a point where we still had to make the changes,” Strickrath said. “We decided to not spend all that money and time when we knew we had a system that needed reform.”
The 2004 lawsuit over conditions at state juvenile-detention facilities is being handled by Gerhardstein in conjunction with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, Children’s Law Center and Youth Law Center.The findings and commentary in the 201-page report ranged from sobering to sad.
“Most ODYS facilities were found to be overcrowded, understaffed, and underserved in such vital areas as safety, education, mental health treatment and rehabilitative programming. ... Excessive force and the excessive use of isolation, some of it extraordinarily prolonged, is endemic to the ODYS system.”
One boy told a fact-finder, “Some kids will go on suicide watch just for someone to pay attention to you and talk to you.”
The report was equally critical about inadequate health, dental and mental-health services and the fact that, on many days, youths at Youth Services facilities receive less than the legally required day’s worth of school instruction.
“Federal requirements for special education students are basically and systemically violated. Security is found to trump education in most matters,” the report said.
At one facility, fear was described as “an all-consuming fire, fueled by the three-dimensional aspects of fear: youth fear other youth, youth fear staff, and staff fear youth.”
One of the solutions, both sides agree, may be hiring more corrections officers to help deal with juvenile populations now 140 percent of rated capacity.
To get to a 1-to-12 officer-to-inmate ratio, the state would have to hire 188 new officers at an estimated cost of $7.8 million annually, the report said. Reaching a more desirable 1:8 ratio would cost $14.2 million.
Copyright 2008 The Columbus Dispatch