ShareThisEven when jails reportedly uphold a federal rule to keep juveniles safe from adult inmates, federal authorities cannot always verify their claims.
Case in point: Cleveland's Central Prison Unit.
During a routine review of Ohio's jails, youth detention centers, prisons and group homes in May 2010, two federal Justice Department auditors tried to inspect the jail. Among other things, the auditors wanted to make sure detainees 17 and younger were segregated from adult inmates by "sight and sound," a provision of the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
No, a spokeswoman for the city said: No young suspects were detained there, and no, it wouldn't grant the auditors access.
The rebuffed auditors, from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, complained that lack of access limited their oversight and their ability to ensure youths' safety.
"The state must obtain monitoring authority, either through legislation or executive order, to monitor all facilities that might house juveniles," Carmen Santiago Roberts and Elissa Rumsey wrote about their attempted visit May 27, 2010.
The incident exposes jurisdictional tensions among federal, state and local governments. And it creates uncertainty about the care of youths in custody.
The inspection request was pointless because city policy explicitly forbids holding juveniles in the city jail "at any time," Andrea Taylor, a spokeswoman for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, said in an email Sept. 6 to Scripps Howard. But in another email three days later, she wrote that the city holds juveniles there for "short periods of time."
Ryan Gies, the state youth services' deputy director, said the impasse has been resolved. Ohio law has been changed to give his agency oversight and the Cleveland jail has provided inmate records. State auditors visited the facility Oct. 18 and found no violations.
"We have been working to improve our monitoring system ... and we will continue to do that," Gies said.
Ohio receives $2 million a year in U.S. Justice Department funding for its juvenile justice programs. States that don't comply with federal rules risk losing such funds.
But Jeff Slowikowski, the OJJDP's acting administrator, said he generally didn't want to withhold money because that might reduce compliance and jeopardize youths.
"The goal here is protecting kids," Slowikowski said. "We want states to stay working with us."
(Contact reporter Isaac Wolf at wolfi(at)shns.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
