Sacramento County Settles Juvenile Detention Suit

Inmate-rights lawyers and Sacramento County have agreed to settle a 2006 lawsuit that accused the Probation Department of running an overcrowded juvenile detention program that featured illegal use of excessive force and an inadequately-run educational program, officials said today. In a consent decree expected to be filed today in Sacramento Superior Court, the county agreed to keep the population levels in its two primary juvenile detention facilities "at or below" the ability of its staff to handle. The county also agreed to disband two emergency response squads that the plaintiffs linked to use of force complaints. It will also install a video recording system in common areas of its main Youth Detention Facility and to design and put in place a new use-of-force policy. "The consent decree provides a blueprint for a transformation from a punitive environment to one where the focus is on protecting the kids and rehabilitating them," said Donald Specter, the plaintiffs' attorney from the Prison Law Office in Berkeley.