‘I am devastated’: Sacramento County sued for housing foster youth in former jail facility

Betty Williams is the longest-serving president of the Sacramento NAACP. She has long been a leader in the fight for civil rights. But now she is taking on a new fight — one that is personal."I heard some hard stories in my role in civil rights, by ex-CPS workers. One of the stories is so similar to what I'm going through right now," Williams said. "But I never thought it would happen to me."A close relative of Williams' was taken by Child Protective Services at the age of 13 and placed in the Sacramento County foster system. From there, Williams said that the girl spiraled into a life of drugs, alcohol and sex trafficking."To go from straight As, cheerleading," Williams said, tearing up, describing the young girl, "To what I believe, since being in the CPS system, to be trafficked, I am devastated. I'm devastated. And I don't want anyone to go through what I'm going through right now."Williams is now suing the county Department of Child, Family and Adult Services on behalf of that girl, claiming that the girl suffered sex abuse, trafficking and exploitation all while in CPS custody.The young girl was not in a foster home. Instead, she was at the "Centralized Placement Support Unit," known as the CPSU. The CPSU was not a group home — it was an office building.For years, the Sacramento County foster system has been plagued with issues.The current problems date back to 2017 when the county was ordered to shut down facilities they leased for the Centralized Placement Support Unit. That space was on the campus of the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento off Auburn Boulevard. The county moved out of that location in 2020.The county closed their intake unit that year but had no plan in place for what to do with the kids that were living inside the facility. This all came as there was a shortage of foster parents to care for kids who had been removed from their homes for any number of reasons.The county decided, after closing their intake unit at the Children’s Receiving Home, to place the kids in that office building.Then, in August of 2022, the state Department of Social Services inspected the CPSU. The inspection found that it "posed an immediate health and safety risk to children in care" and could not continue to house kids. It had no beds, no showers and virtually no kitchen facilities.So the county moved the kids, hundreds of them, according to the lawsuit, to a building down the street, also owned by the county: the Warren E. Thornton Juvenile Detention Center, colloquially called the WET center. All those kids moved from an office building to a jail."This is one of the most traumatizing times of these children’s lives," Bobby Thompson, Williams' attorney, said. "They've been ripped from their homes, scared to death, unfamiliar people all around. And they're sleeping on the floor, on couches and in office buildings."He added that moving them from an office building to a jail amounts to "making these children feel like they did something wrong by putting them in a jail cell. It's like pouring lemon on a cut. It's kicking them while they're down. It's just incomprehensible."The suit describes both the former jail and the CPSU as being in a "famously unsafe" area of the county where foster youth were free to come and go as they wanted from an unsecured government building accessible by anyone. Thompson said that includes pimps, sex traffickers and other criminals."If you're over 12, you can come and go as you please. And unfortunately for my client, she was procured by a pimp or pimps at both the CPSU facility and the WET Center," Thompson said.The suit says that the young girl had been trafficked for months, from March to November of 2022. It also says she had attempted to take her own life on her 14th birthday while in the CPSU. Since then, she’s left the area multiple times and been arrested twice in Sacramento motel rooms."She's under the care of CPS," said Williams, as tears streamed down her face. "CPS. She had this bright future. I have nightmares we're going to find her dead one day if she keeps going down this road."Williams is not alone. KCRA 3 Investigates talked with a mother who confirmed similar troubles with her 13-year-old son, placed in that same county office building.She shared text messages she received from a social worker, reading, "… he's in the hospital due to being under the influence." The social worker also explains how they're aware children leave on their own, saying he "Went AWOL from CPSU around 10 am. Kids tend to leave and come back often so I wouldn’t get too worried."In February, the state found Sacramento County’s WET Center, too, is in violation of California Health and Safety Codes and is operating without a license. Yet the former jail still remains in use.KCRA 3 Investigates reached out to the county, which admits that the WET Center is not a licensed facility, nor is it intended to be a placement for foster youth."It is a location our foster youth are taken to or return to when there are no immediate placements available," Sacramento County spokesperson Samantha Mott said. In the same email, she wrote, "Youth are not locked in the rooms, nor can they lock themselves in. Although the rooms have toilets in them, they are no longer functional. Four of the rooms have been converted to serve solely as restrooms and they allow full privacy."Sacramento County in another statement to KCRA 3 said it cannot comment on pending litigation."The county is having either an attrition problem with its qualified social workers, or it's not paying them enough,” Thompson said. "Or they're just chronically understaffed. They're just incapable of doing the job."Williams said her mission to save her relative has now grown to save Sacramento's children in the system."You're not alone. Anybody that's going through the CPS system that feels that they haven't been heard. I hear you,” she said. "I want to make sure that they know I hear you. I see you. I am you."Editor's Note (April 26, 2023): This article has been changed to clarify that the county leased facilities from the Children's Receiving Home of Sacramento and it was ordered to close in 2017, eventually moving in 2020.