THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604190022
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The director of the Department of Youth and Family Services says the agency is not considering placing juveniles who assault staff members in isolation for 15 to 45 days. That idea, contained in a program plan leaked to the press last month, was a mistake, department officials say.
This is good news. But it's alarming that such a suggestion was included even in a draft document, and that the department's disavowal did not come instantly. The incident should serve as a red flag to legislators and others who monitor the state's correctional policies, as well as a reminder to state officials to avoid ``solutions'' that create problems of their own.
Youth and Family Services plans to remap its disciplinary policy for youthful offenders in upcoming months. In charting that new course, the department should not allow legitimate worries about the safety of corrections personnel to blind it to the negative consequences of overly harsh punishment.
A 15-to-45 day isolation policy, which goes far beyond the standard recommended by the American Correctional Association, would be one such idea.
When state lawmakers toured the Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center outside Richmond last winter, they saw tiny holding cells, grim and dank, in which offenders are isolated when deemed a threat to staff or other residents.
Juvenile corrections experts say that more than a few days spent in such places can cause long-term psychological damage outweighing the short-term benefits. Ideally, the purpose of punishment is to foster remorse, or at least a resolve not to repeat the offense. But if punishment is too severe, what it can produce instead is either rage or despair. An escalation of violent behavior or an attempted suicide are two possible outcomes of dehumanizing treatment.
Another, in this litigious age, is a legal black eye for the commonwealth. While public policy-makers cannot be forever looking over their shoulders in fear of who might sue them, to approve procedures that on their face appear cruel and are clearly unusual is courting disaster.
The state legislature has taken several steps to address concerns about the safety of prison personnel. Under legislation passed this winter, assaults on guards in juvenile facilities soon will be treated as felonies, as in adult prisons. Staff levels at juvenile facilities are being improved, and there are long-range plans for a separate facility for the most-violent juvenile offenders. Such steps are a better solution than extended isolation.
``Whatever we do in the future with isolation, I can guarantee you there would never be 45 days of isolation,'' said Ed Murray, chief of operations for the department. Current policy calls for maximum isolation of 72 hours. But Murray acknowledged that ``somebody totally beyond control'' might be isolated for up to four days. Some Beaumont residents have told reporters privately that individuals have been isolated longer than that.
Such reports, combined with the now disavowed plan for lengthy isolation stays, call for continued public vigilance in monitoring the treatment of youthful lawbreakers. If there is any stage at which rehabilitation should outweigh punishment, it is while offenders are young. by CNB