Yolo County Youth Immigration Detention Facility In Spotlight
YOLO COUNTY (CBS130 — An immigrant youth detention facility in Yolo County is under scrutiny after a grand jury report revealed some major problems.
The center is not for children who were separated from their parents, but rather for undocumented and unaccompanied teens considered to be a danger to themselves or others.
Now, the county could close it down for good.
The Yolo County Board of Supervisors plans to tackle the fate of a federal contract that houses immigrant minors.
"What we should be doing is what's best for the kids," said Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza, "I fear for what would happen to the kids who are there now if we would abruptly terminate our participation in the program."
It's a program that's been in place since 2008. Yolo County is paid $2.9 million a year by the federal government to oversee 24 unaccompanied and undocumented minors at any given time.
But, that money isn't outweighing the problems. According to a grand jury report, there were at least ten assaults of detention officers by teens in 2017 as well as one escape. The crimes are potential felonies and the report claims only one of them was reported to the Yolo County District Attorney's Office.
The grand jury investigation also revealed that immigrant teens who are "...prosecuted for felonies committed at the juvenile detention facility, might become wards of Yolo County, increasing the financial burden to the county."
Provenza said, "Those are things that happen when you don't have enough staff to deal with the population that you have."
Provenza says the chief probation officer blames the problems on understaffing. To fix the issues, he applied for an additional $2.2 million in federal funding to double the number of detention officers and clinicians in the facility. Provenza says the funds were granted.
"It's stepping up to address the problems."
Or potentially risking a facility shut down that Provenza worries couldn't come at a worse time. The only other detention center of its kind in the U.S. is in Virginia, which is now being sued for allegations of abuse against undocumented teens.
"The question in my mind is if we were to shut down, where would they go? Would they be sent somewhere with even worse conditions?" asked Provenza.
The Yolo County Board of Supervisors will vote on whether or to approve the additional funding from the federal government on Tuesday. The outcome of that vote could play a large role in the fate of the detention facility.
