In August of 2005, a ward in a California youth prison who was locked alone in his cell for two months killed himself. The suicide of 18-year-old Joseph Maldonado prompted a special investigation. It also inspired a bill just approved by the California Legislature.
The measure aims to make it easier for wards of the state to have contact with their families. Supporters say family contact is essential for rehabilitation. KPBS Reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
Joseph Maldonado was doing time in the California Youth Authority for car theft. Maldonado’s sister Rene Nunez says she was able to call and visit him when he was in the Preston facility near Sacramento. But when Maldonado was moved to a youth prison in Stockton, his visitors’ list didn’t get transferred. And due to an outbreak of violence in the unit, Maldonado was put in solitary confinement.
Rene Nunez: He wasn’t allowed to have visits, privileges are taken away as far as schooling, showers. They had them on lockdown for I think 23-24 hours a day.
Nunez says she lost contact with her brother.
Nunez: I had written him about a week, or two weeks before he passed away, just to kind of see what was going on, and I kept following up trying to see if my name was on the visiting list, and he was still being denied visitation. My letter came back in the mail, after the fact that I had found out that he had passed away on the 31st.
On August 31st 2005, Maldonado covered his cell window, and hung himself. At the time, the California Youth Authority was under a court order to end their practice of extended lockdowns. The agency was also mandated to make sure wards were out of their cells daily for educational and vocational activities.
Sumayyah Waheed: Young people who get in trouble need care, they need help to turn their lives around. And so, the youth prisons for years have not been providing that help.
Sumayyah Waheed is with the Oakland-based Books Not Bars . It’s a group advocating for changes in the juvenile justice system. Waheed says California’s youth prisons have been failing for years.
Waheed: They need to be providing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is allowing families contact, so that they can stay in touch with their children, and we’re not seeing that that’s happening right now, so, it’s one of the main reasons behind the bill.
The bill, AB 1300, requires the Department of Juvenile Justice to encourage wards to communicate with family members and clergy.Under the measure, wards must be given at least four phone calls a month. Calls may not be withheld as punishment. And when wards are moved between facilities, their list of approved visitors and callers must move with them.
Sandra Youngen is the state’s director of juvenile facilities. She’s one of the new faces in a department that’s undergone enormous turnover over the last few years. Youngen concedes her predecessors may not have considered family contact to be essential. But she says times have changed.
Youngen: I think all the way from our security officers, our you know, our clinical staff, everybody recognizes the value of that family contact. And we are certainly committed to make sure that that happens.
State lawmakers want to hold Youngen to her word. The legislature recently gave its unanimous approval to AB 1300. Republican Joel Anderson represents East San Diego County in the state assembly.
Anderson: I think it’s very important that we focus on the families; these are the people that care most about their children, and let them participate in the process, of straightening the kids out.
Rene Nunez says she hopes Governor Schwarzenegger will sign the bill. Less than a year after her brother’s death, a group of national experts released a report on California’s juvenile justice system. They concluded the system was broken almost everywhere you look.
State officials say they’re making changes. Nunez doesn’t buy it.
Nunez: A lot of changes they’ve said they’ve made, they haven’t. Nothing’s been done since, even after the fact that my brother’s passed away.
Nunez and her mother have filed a wrongful death suit against the state. The case is scheduled to go to trial next year.
Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
