Jack Kirkpatrick
04-22-2009, 02:33 PM
I have been posting for some time that the Juvenile Probation Department is remiss in supervising their inmates (wards) at their facilities for years and the department is a disaster waiting to happen.
Today, a 13 year-old "girl was found [after escaping from] and later returning to Margaret Kemp Girl's Camp located on Tower Road, according to the Sheriff's Office. She was found a little more than an hour after being reported missing... [but] went missing shortly after midnight... and returned to the facility at about 1:30 a.m., according to a sheriff's dispatcher. The Margaret Kemp Girls Camp is a minimum security facility for students who have been court ordered to probation programs."
There is no question that our detention facilities are understaffed, improperly supervised and inadequately secured with fencing and surveillance cameras. It doesn't matter whether the breaches are from the Youth Service Center, Camp Glenwood, Margaret Kemp Girls Camp or the county's psychiatric facility, Canyon Oaks Youth Center: a residential treatment program (level 13/14) serves San Mateo County co-ed adolescents 12-17 years of age. They had two reported escapes last year.
It is now willful misconduct on the part of the Board of Supervisors not to do a housecleaning from the Chief Probation Officer, the administrators of institutions and shift employees who are directly responsible for the supervision of our juveniles. Can you imagine the cost in lawsuits that may occur if an escapee is found dead at Crystal Springs, La Honda... or someone is injured or killed while on escape status? Several incidents (murder/injury) are pending because escapees committed new crimes before reincarceration.
The county may be self insured, but the money may come out of a departments budget during the next budget review or request. Risk management requires $900,000 to secure the YSC and $1.9 million to secure Camp Glenwood, that will still be cheaper than a $5 million lawsuit that may very well be successful if there is a loss to life, injury and property. It is time to secure fencing at the Kemp and Canyons Oaks and forget that there is a stigma attached to out of control youths that have not adjusted to our communities.
Simply arguing that open facilities facilitate rehabilitations is a myth of the 1960's and no longer valid today without more proof demonstrated by longitudinal studies that yet have been seriously funded or followed up for 20 years!
In the meantime close down these facilities and do your treatment programs in the more secure state-of-the-art Youth Service Center that still needs double fencing!
Today, a 13 year-old "girl was found [after escaping from] and later returning to Margaret Kemp Girl's Camp located on Tower Road, according to the Sheriff's Office. She was found a little more than an hour after being reported missing... [but] went missing shortly after midnight... and returned to the facility at about 1:30 a.m., according to a sheriff's dispatcher. The Margaret Kemp Girls Camp is a minimum security facility for students who have been court ordered to probation programs."
There is no question that our detention facilities are understaffed, improperly supervised and inadequately secured with fencing and surveillance cameras. It doesn't matter whether the breaches are from the Youth Service Center, Camp Glenwood, Margaret Kemp Girls Camp or the county's psychiatric facility, Canyon Oaks Youth Center: a residential treatment program (level 13/14) serves San Mateo County co-ed adolescents 12-17 years of age. They had two reported escapes last year.
It is now willful misconduct on the part of the Board of Supervisors not to do a housecleaning from the Chief Probation Officer, the administrators of institutions and shift employees who are directly responsible for the supervision of our juveniles. Can you imagine the cost in lawsuits that may occur if an escapee is found dead at Crystal Springs, La Honda... or someone is injured or killed while on escape status? Several incidents (murder/injury) are pending because escapees committed new crimes before reincarceration.
The county may be self insured, but the money may come out of a departments budget during the next budget review or request. Risk management requires $900,000 to secure the YSC and $1.9 million to secure Camp Glenwood, that will still be cheaper than a $5 million lawsuit that may very well be successful if there is a loss to life, injury and property. It is time to secure fencing at the Kemp and Canyons Oaks and forget that there is a stigma attached to out of control youths that have not adjusted to our communities.
Simply arguing that open facilities facilitate rehabilitations is a myth of the 1960's and no longer valid today without more proof demonstrated by longitudinal studies that yet have been seriously funded or followed up for 20 years!
In the meantime close down these facilities and do your treatment programs in the more secure state-of-the-art Youth Service Center that still needs double fencing!