L.A. Mulls Juvenile Mental Health Hospital

SYLMAR, Calif. — Los Angeles County probation officials are proposing construction of a new 70-bed hospital to house and treat incarcerated youths with the most serious mental health conditions.

Probation officials are pushing for the new hospital, which would cost $5 million to $10 million and allow the transfer of mentally ill youths held in 24-hour isolation facilities to a clinical setting.

County representatives are in early talks about the proposed facility, which would be located next to the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.

The project faces several hurdles, including funding sources and scheduling. The county has about $80 million in reserve, but is conserving funds due to anticipated state budget cuts this fiscal year, according to reports.

Probation officials believe the proposed facility could save the county money in the long run by moving juveniles from lockdown to a hospital setting, which would reduce the workload for probation staff and allow the county to apply for reimbursements from Medi-Cal and Medicare.

It costs the county $1 million to $2 million each year in personnel costs and other expenses to provide 24-hour monitoring of incarcerated youths.

The housing and treatment of mentally ill youths in custody at Los Angeles County’s 19 probation camps and three juvenile halls has been under scrutiny for nearly a decade.

In 2000, three county juvenile halls were found by a Los Angeles grand jury to be overmedicating youths. As many as 16 psychotropic drugs were frequently being used to treat juveniles with depression, anxiety and mood disorders.

Federal investigators started regularly visiting the halls and held a formal investigation in 2007 of all 19 probation camps. During the investigation, agents found suicidal youths who were forced to wait several days before being seen by mental health staff and instances of self-inflicted violence by youths waiting to receive help.

Investigators also reported the use of pepper spray by probation officers on youths who were taking psychotropic medications, despite an order by the U.S. Justice Department in 2004 to reduce officers’ use of force against juvenile detainees.

Overcrowding is also a problem in the county’s juvenile facilities, which supervise as many as 4,000 teenagers, whose average stay is about three weeks.

In addition, the number of mentally ill youths in custody is on the rise, due to the elimination of long-term beds at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center and similar facilities.

Officials estimate 35 percent to 40 percent of youths in county custody require mental health treatment.

Last fiscal year, more than 15,000 incarcerated youths were treated by county mental health workers at probation facilities, according to reports.

In November 2008, probation officers signed an agreement to improve mental health staffing, screening and treatment at juvenile camps following a threat by the Justice department to sue the county.

Alternatives to the hospital proposal include the creation of more juvenile mental health courts, which could divert mentally ill youth from juvenile halls.