Disability Rights are Human Rights

Some members of DRC's Consumer Assistance, Payee Review, and Investigations (CAPRI) team

DRC’s Investigations Unit Investigates Sacramento County's Unlawful Housing of Foster Youth in an Unlicensed, Former Detention Facility

On April 10, 2023, DRC’s Investigation Unit (IU) learned through media reports that Sacramento County was housing foster youth at the Warren E. Thornton Youth Center (“WET Center”), an unlicensed, former juvenile detention facility. The facility housed about twenty foster youth aged 12-17. The youth came to the facility from disrupted placements and remained there because of the shortage of therapeutic placements and services in the Sacramento area. In response, the IU opened an investigation into the facility and conducted an unannounced site inspection on April 17, 2023.

IU Staff released a report of their findings on May 10, 2023, titled “It Feels Like a Juvenile Hall to Me”: A Snapshot of Conditions in the Warren E. Thornton Youth Center. The report described the facility’s carceral conditions and included photos of its cells and other prison-like amenities. In the report the IU called on Sacramento County to immediately begin transition planning for each foster youth resident and phase out its use of the facility. 

Less than a week after the IU issued its report, the California Department of Social Services denied Sacramento County’s application to license the WET Center and ordered the County to transition all youth out by June 16, 2023, or face fines of $200 per day per foster youth. DRC’s public interest partner, the Youth Law Center, then reached a stipulated settlement with the County to close the facility and attached the IU’s report to the pleadings. 

The County transferred all youth out by the State’s deadline and opened three new, fully licensed homes in the community to house children. The IU continued to monitor the situation for several months. We are encouraged by the County’s work to increase its community mental health services for foster youth. For example, we will continue to work with our community partners and colleagues in the Legal Advocacy Unit to ensure foster youth in Sacramento County and all across California have access to the nurturing and homelike environments the law requires.

Since December 2022, the Investigations Unit has been investigating alleged abuse of youth at the Star View Adolescent Center in Torrance, Los Angeles County. Star View is a Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF), which is a type of psychiatric hospital licensed by the Department of Health Care Services’ (DHCS) Mental Health Licensing Division. 

During the investigation our team identified problems with DHCS’ PHF oversight. Although state law charges DHCS with investigating complaints concerning PHFs, there is no information online about its complaint process. This has created widespread confusion. For example, in reviewing recent complaints again Star View, we discovered that many complainants filed with the wrong state agency, which then forwarded – often after a long delay – the complaint to DHCS. Other complainants, including concerned parents of Star View residents, frantically emailed any DHCS email address they could find online. 

In its ongoing investigation into Star View, the IU has retained experts to review information and records and provide opinions and recommendations for reforming the facility’s restraint and seclusion practices. IU staff also provided brief service to several Star View residents transitioning to the community, including working with youth to request their diplomas and other documents needed to apply to community college, helping youth recover allowances and other items retained by the facility, and referring them to DRC’s Pathways to Work Practice Group for assistance applying for Department of Rehabilitation services.