Drugs, alcohol, and violence inside Sacramento County foster youth facility

The calls started coming almost immediately."We have a 16-year-old female who’s bleeding in front of the youth center wearing maroon leggings and a long-sleeved shirt," was one call that came in Jan. 2 this year."Engine 62, Medic 62, Violent crime assault, 4000 Branch Center Road," came on Feb 4.Roughly a dozen times a month, the scanner would ring out calls from dispatch to Sacramento Metropolitan Fire companies. Calls sending them to the Warren E. Thornton Center. From Aug. 25, 2022, to April 30 of this year, there were 81 calls to 4000 Branch Center Road. Everything from overdoses to violent attacks to smoke alarms going off due to clouds of marijuana smoke inside the building.A building housing kids anywhere from 12-17 years old in the custody of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services.The Warren E. Thornton Center, which the state of California calls a former detention center, was put back in use in August of 2022. It became a new housing facility because Sacramento County was told that the office building where foster kids — kids in CPS custody, removed from their homes for a number of reasons — were sleeping and being housed. Sacramento County had said it was supposed to be a processing center, someplace kids were not supposed to be sleeping, as they were waiting for placement in foster homes. Instead, unable to find foster homes or suitable family placement, the county kept kids inside that office building. As it was never designed for residence, that was a violation of the fire code. The state of California told the county it could not continue to use that building."Working with the county, we determined that ... could be a temporary solution for up to 18 months as they worked to find a better solution for where to house these kids," said Chief Barbie Law, fire marshal for Sacramento Metropolitan Fire.So in August, it moved operations to the Warren E. Thornton Youth Center. But as early as Aug. 2, chief Law and Metro Fire inspectors began finding violations at 4000 Branch Center Road, Wing C. By that date, no permits for change in use had occurred to bring the building up to code, according to inspection reports obtained by KCRA 3 Investigates. Failure after failure appeared in the records, some for fire doors — others for lack of records. Others show kids daisy-chaining extension cords into the cells where they sleep because there were no power cords to charge their phones.See more about the facility's bleak conditions hereYet even the inspections reference the calls for service. Those calls were obtained by KCRA 3 as well. By September, the fire units, a large number from station 62 off Bradshaw Road, had been responding to similar calls: fire alarms going off. Not always due to fires, but due to cigarette and marijuana smoke so thick they set off the alarms. Smoke from kids under the age of 18 inside the WET Center. One call notes that empty bottles of alcohol sat on the floor. Another call notes that kids had claimed to have snorted cocaine on-site."So kids were actively smoking marijuana, illicit drugs within the facility," Law said. "That was particularly challenging. December, February, we had quite a few calls for false alarms being set off by marijuana smoke, which obviously is of concern when you know you're dealing with kids in a population, it isn't what we normally would see."In fact, the smoke was so thick that, according to Law, "I know that at least one of our inspectors filed an exposure report after being in the building." Also of concern was the timeline to get the building up to code. Metro Fire had given the county 18 months to get the permits pulled and the changes made to the WET Center so kids could live there safely. That included having two ways in and out of so-called bedrooms — former cells. The windows do not open and the doors, while not locked, are the only way out in a fire. As Law described it, the building was designed to keep people in, not let people out.Watch More Below | Lawmakers tour former detention facility housing foster care youth after KCRA 3 investigation Law said they simply saw no movement to make changes at the WET Center by the county."We're not at a year yet," Law said. "However, we have not seen any submittal for permits to do the work."Along with that were the many calls, averaging a dozen per month, Law said that, even though the kids are supposed only to be in the facility for 48 hours, they saw the same kids over and over again."If we were to respond out into the community to a home, and saw the amount of marijuana smoke and drinking and drugs going on in a location, we would be required as mandated reporters to notify Child Protective Services," Law said. "And so this is a different type of situation, because they're actually already in the care of Child Protective Services, essentially."Read More Here | Sacramento County faces 2nd lawsuit for housing foster youth at unlicensed facilityFor Law, it's a sign."It says that something's broken in our system and our safety net for taking care of our children in Sacramento County. That's what it says to me," Law said. After all those calls for service, the county signed a contract with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office to supply 18 people to handle security at the WET Center. While slated as a temporary facility, the Memorandum of Understanding with the sheriff runs through 2025 for more than $5.5 million. Yet just as concerning to Law was the status of the county's license to operate at the WET Center. "We also found out that the facility actually isn't licensed to be providing shelter care for children, which was a new piece of information that added complexity to the problem," Law said. "Because not only are we not in the right type of building with the right type of safety features, we're not licensed to be providing the care that we're doing."On May 16, the California Department of Social Services told Sacramento County to cease operations at 4000 Branch Center Road. It gave the county until June 16 to remove the children and said it was not allowed to place any more children inside. It would face fines of $200 per day, per child, after that.When KCRA 3 Investigates asked the county about the contract with the sheriff and whether the county would have to continue to pay through 2025 if the facility is shut down, it said it had a 30-day termination clause. However, upon review, the termination clause in the contract requires a 12-month termination notice. In response, the county said, "Thank you for pointing out our discrepancy," and said it is negotiating with the sheriff to move resources to other facilities. Sacramento County is working to find a solution to the unlicensed WET Center. In an email, it informed KCRA it is negotiating leases for three "welcome centers." It also says it is "working diligently with the State and partners to meet the June 16 deadline." As for Law, her office sent a letter mirroring what the state says — due to the fact that the WET Center was not licensed, they need to cease operation by June 16. But she said her goal is to work with the county in order to find a safe and appropriate place to give the kids inside the WET Center a chance. "We just want to see the kids in a right place and have the same chance that you and I grew up with," Law said.