'It feels like a juvenile hall to me': A look at the Sacramento County facility for foster youth

Sacramento County continues to receive criticism and calls for change while it is currently housing foster care youth in a former jail facility that is unlicensed.Ahead of its report that was published Tuesday, Disability Rights California shared with KCRA 3 exclusively the contents of the report. It details an April visit to the facility by investigators who say the children are being housed in a jail-like atmosphere."I've done foster care work, and I'm familiar with the system and I couldn't believe this was happening here, so we jumped on it and dropped what we were doing," said Robert Borrelle, the supervising attorney and lead investigator.RELATED | ‘I am devastated’: Sacramento County sued for housing foster youth in former jail facilityBorrelle and another investigator, Zach Brown, made the unannounced visit April 17. The DRC has federal authority to conduct visits when it believes there is probable cause for abuse and neglect. "When you interact with the youth and see how they're living, it's really demoralizing," said Brown, who is also a DRC attorney. The investigators said on the day of their visit, there were 14 youths placed there, ages 12 to 17. They said most of the children were in school that day but they did speak with some of them during their visit. "One youth just told us point blank, 'It feels like a juvenile hall to me,'" Borrelle said.They shared black and white photos of where the foster youth sleep and live. They said when you enter the facility, you have to go through a metal detector and an X-ray machine. On the day they visited, there were three Sacramento County sheriff's deputies on duty. "I understand the safety of the youth is paramount but you can imagine when you are coming and going from school or family comes to visit and you are greeted with police presence, " Borrelle said. "That was the most striking thing at the beginning."Photos in the report show two beds in a shared room with thin, plastic mattresses on metal frames placed in front of a tile floor with a drain.There's a sink in the room with push buttons for water."Because these are juvenile hall cells, they all have a metal toilet covered with gray wooden boxes, which is striking because it's something they did to make it more home-like and it just hammers home more that it's a juvenile hall," Borrelle said.The county has converted five of the rooms into bathrooms with metal toilets.The investigators said on the day of their visit, only one bathroom was working and they lock from the outside. They said other than the exposed toilet, there is not much difference in the rooms, which they call cells, where they sleep."Not only having one bathroom but having to ask staff for permission, it just goes to it not being a home-like environment," Borrelle said. "In a typical home, you wouldn't have to ask permission to use the restroom."The report also points out electrical outlets in the rooms.Investigators said the county told them they installed electrical outlets in each of the rooms the week before the visit. They said the county told them it was running extension cords for youth to charge phones and laptops, but the fire department said it was a hazard.The investigators said the answer is not to build another facility but to put the youth in a family-like community-based care home."Fourteen youth that the county is responsible for and you can't find anything but an abandoned juvenile hall to keep them in," Brown said.Sacramento County has yet to read the report and said it will respond once it has seen it.The DRC is calling on the county to immediately begin transition planning for each foster youth resident and phase out its use of the facility.UPDATE May 10: Sacramento County Senior Public Information Officer Samantha Mott releases statement.Sacramento County agrees the WET Center is not an ideal location for youth awaiting suitable placements; however, the County believes it is the safest and best option at this point, while we continue to seek viable solutions for placements in licensed settings. The WET Center is not now, nor was it ever intended to be, a long-term location for our foster youth to be taken to or return to when there are no immediate placements available. The County is currently in negotiations with service providers to contract for short-term shelter services for youth awaiting appropriate placement.We are encouraged by the recent interest from legislators and are eager to work with them and others to meet the challenges of our youth placement. The lack of suitable and available placements for our youth with high-level needs is something that counties are grappling with statewide. As such, we welcome the introduction of state legislation, such as SB 408 (Ashby), to address foster youth with complex needs.The C-Wing of the WET Youth Center where the Centralized Placement Support Unit is currently located was most recently (2009) utilized as a residential rehabilitative treatment facility and youth center. While it was operated by the Probation Department, it was NOT a detention facility. It was a Level A placement that provided programming on site including, but not limited to, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, gang prevention, family reunification, and on-site education. Youth resided in double occupancy rooms, not cells. The facility was not locked. While youth were encouraged to remain at the facility to complete their program, if a youth wanted to leave, they could. We are fortunate to have strong partnerships with various organizations to provide on-site services and supports while youth await placement in a licensed setting. The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) is at the WET Youth Center twice a week to help youth with enrollment into school, work through anxiety about returning to school if they’ve been away for a while, provide tutoring and Independent Living Program (ILP) skill lessons, and assist with any other educational needs they have. WEAVE (our local domestic violence/sexual assault agency), The Source (our local Family Urgent Response System provider) and Capital Stars (BHS provider of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children services) are on site to facilitate groups, have individual meetings and provide fun, interactive events and activities for youth. A substance abuse clinician is on-site once a week to engage with youth and facilitate groups regarding substance use.Social workers regularly schedule Child and Family Team (CFT) meetings for youth awaiting placement. Participants of the CFT meetings include the youth, family members, family cultural broker, mental health provider, social worker, the youth’s attorney/advocate, probation officer if juvenile justice is involved, and any other individuals the youth or family identifies. We are also implementing an expedited process to ensure CFTs happen as soon as possible. In addition to the services and supports mentioned above, DCFAS has invested in numerous strategies to create placements for our foster youth, including but not limited to the following: Developed a Home-Based Shelter Care (HBSC) model which provides enhanced funding to FFA resource parents to hold beds and accept youth from CPSU on demand. Once they accept a youth, DCFAS pays significantly above the foster care rate. Revisit placements with parents, relatives and non-related extended family members (NREFMs) who previously did not meet WIC 309 or 361.45 standards, but who are now in a different situation, due to SB 354. Staff engage with parents, relatives and NREFMs to see if they are willing to take a youth over night or over a weekend. DCFAS adds funding to the foster care rate for FFAs and STRTPs who will accept youth (only with additional funding) to enhance staffing to meet their needs. Pre-placement visits for youth and resource families as a trial prior to placement to ensure there is a match that will be successful. Gathering information to use Complex Care Capacity Building funding to create a County Intensive Services Foster Care program. Contracting with a consultant to help us create a structured, trauma-informed setting at CPSU, while we seek a longer term solution. DCFAS attends the Hospital Council’s Discharge Planning and Transitions of Care Workgroup meetings to ensure youth have appropriate discharge plans and not automatically discharged to CPSU. Transitional Housing Program (THP) has been utilized for youth close to turning 18 years of age so they can transition to THP+ as their Supervised Independent Living Program plan while in Extended Foster Care.There are numerous challenges with finding appropriate placements for our high needs foster youth who exhibit trauma response behaviors. One of the biggest barriers is a lack of appropriate placements in California, including near Sacramento, able to meet the complex needs of our youth. We have a number of youth that have been rejected by multiple placement options, including parents, relatives and non-related extended family members, and/or ejected after being placed. We have been able to find some placements for youth elsewhere in the state; however, youth do not want to leave their community here in Sacramento. When youth do accept a placement outside of Sacramento, they often leave and are in unsafe situations while returning to CPSU. Samantha MottSenior Public Information Officer