Budget tries to curb foster kids’ arrests
For years, California foster care shelters have been places of punishment for abused and neglected children whose minor outbursts often landed them in the local juvenile hall.
Upended furniture. Tussles over a swing set. A thrown bag of hotdog buns. Such disruptions repeatedly ended in arrests and charges including assault and vandalism, even when no one was hurt and the situations had been defused.
Now, with a $4 million allocation in the new state budget, California lawmakers have moved to end the dubious practice, which was exposed last year in a Chronicle investigation.
As part of the 2018-19 budget approved Thursday, the Legislature directed the new spending toward helping prevent the unnecessary arrests of foster children. The money would be used on support services for foster youth and extra de-escalation and adolescent development training for law enforcement and staff at residential facilities.
Corresponding legislation expected to be passed next week would further specify that children’s shelters and group homes should call police only in emergencies or after all other interventions have been tried.
Maria Ramiu, a senior staff
attorney with the Youth Law Center in San Francisco, said if that legislation passes as expected, it will represent an important “change in philosophy” that will encourage facilities to stop using law enforcement as a discipline tool.
“Having this language in the law should shift thinking,” Ramiu said. “They should only call law enforcement as a last resort.”
Gov. Jerry Brown has until June 30 to sign the budget, which would finalize the new funding that had been proposed by Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson (Los Angeles County), and Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. It follows a 2017 Chronicle investigation that detailed the overpolicing of children housed in foster care shelters.
“These kids have been traumatized; we need not further traumatize these kids,” Gipson said. “My hope is that the bad actors will be exposed, and their licenses will be revoked and we will have individuals providing the kind of nurturing care and interaction that these children need.”
In 2015 and 2016, there were hundreds of arrests for minor misdeeds in California’s 10 remaining children’s shelters, The Chronicle found. Incidents often began with a simple request, such as asking a child to wait for a bowl of cereal, and ended with employees being bit, spit at or punched.
In many cases, shelter staff appeared unable to calm the intense emotions expected from children who experienced trauma before their behavior became unmanageable, according to reports submitted to the state.
More than half of the arrests occurred at the Mary Graham Children’s Shelter, outside Stockton. Shay Holliman, a community organizer with Fathers & Families of San Joaquin, said she was arrested at the shelter in the late 1990s for running through the hallways and being loud and disruptive. Her outburst was sparked by emotional turmoil related to being removed from her family, Holliman said.
She was seeking attention and someone to talk to. Instead, Holliman was charged with disturbing the peace.
“I was taken from my home, placed in a children’s shelter where I was supposed to be protected, and the next thing you know, I was being placed in the back of a police car,” Holliman said. “I hope no more kids have to experience the police being called on them if they need counseling or some kind of help.”
Law enforcement interventions in California children’s shelters dropped in 2017 because of heightened scrutiny, population declines and the closure of three facilities. Still, children were arrested, detained or cited at shelter campuses on at least 66 occasions last year.
Shelter directors have defended their staffs, saying they acted appropriately to manage volatile behavior that had escalated into dangerous and threatening situations. Still, some local child welfare leaders welcomed the financial assistance approved Thursday.
“We would certainly support additional State funding to enhance the quality of services provided to foster youth in San Joaquin County,” said an email from Michael Miller, director of the San Joaquin County Human Services Agency, which oversees the Mary Graham shelter.
Most of the $4 million will go to community-based organizations in counties with group homes and children’s shelters that have excessive calls to law enforcement, as well as counties with high numbers of children moving from foster care into the juvenile justice system.
The money will then be directed to additional services for foster youth, including mentoring, college prep and health programming. A half-million dollars will be spent training facility staff and police on how to avoid unnecessary arrests and detentions.
The California Department of Social Services, which will oversee the trainings, will seek matching funds from the federal government.
After the budget is signed, a related bill is expected to be approved Monday that would lay out how the money will be spent. The funds would be distributed to counties next spring. The new policies will be in place until July of 2023, unless further legislative action is taken.
“I would hope this is invested in ways that produce healing, harmony and stability for families that have been destabilized for generations,” said Sammy Nuñez, executive director of Fathers & Families of San Joaquin. “This is a historic opportunity to really fix some of the systemic issues that have pipelined young people that are already vulnerable and dependent on the state to protect them.”