S.F. reversal means more juvvies detained longer
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2008

(07-03) 17:38 PDT -- The population of San Francisco's juvenile hall is likely to spike now that the city has reversed its policy of shielding juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of felonies from federal immigration officials, city officials said today.

And the undocumented youth are likely to see the length of their stays in detention increase dramatically as the juvenile probation department faces fewer alternatives to lock-up. At least one city official warned that many of the teenagers could be detained for a year or more.

Controversy over the numbers of kids locked up at juvenile hall erupted last spring when children's advocates slammed Mayor Gavin Newsom and his handpicked Chief Probation Officer Bill Siffermann for allowing the number of incarcerated youth to rise to 156, a 30-year high.

That was more than the maximum capacity of 150 at the new Youth Guidance Center near Twin Peaks, and city officials vowed during the facility's construction that the beds would never be filled. Siffermann was hired by Newsom in 2005 in large part because he successfully cut the size of the juvenile population in Chicago.

After the complaints, Newsom promptly ordered the number in San Francisco reduced and issued an executive order demanding reform in the city's juvenile justice system. The number of incarcerated youths immediately went down to 128. As of Thursday it was at 119.

Those numbers will likely go back up now that the juvenile probation department has run out of other ways to handle illegal immigrant youth picked up for felonies, Siffermann said today in an interview with The Chronicle.

"We now have fewer options. We can't move them out," Siffermann said. "I anticipate the population of the hall will increase."

The Chronicle on Sunday revealed that San Francisco was shielding Honduran youths convicted of dealing crack cocaine from possible federal deportation as part of its policy to be a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. Since mid-2006, the city has spent $18,951 on the flights.

After federal law enforcement authorities demanded the flights be stopped, the city instead sent the youth to long-term rehabilitation centers in Southern California, where eight of them ran away.

Newsom said Wednesday that the city would stop the practice and promptly hand over any illegal immigrants convicted of felonies, regardless of age.

"We are committed to not returning any youth to their countries of origin, and we are committed to not placing any more of the undocumented youth in out-of-home placement," Siffermann said, noting most of them have no parents in this country to return to.Today, 22 undocumented youth were at the hall - more than a sixth of the total. Siffermann met for an hour this morning with officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to develop protocols for how the city will deal with undocumented youth in the future. That includes deciding when ICE officials will be told that the city has detained a juvenile felon, said Nathan Ballard, press secretary for Newsom.

Ballard said the policy of shielding of undocumented youth was not connected to the city's efforts to lower the number of kids at juvenile hall.

"We have halted the practice of putting undocumented immigrants on planes, and now we have to deal with reality," Ballard said. "It's still a priority to get juveniles who deserve treatment into appropriate rehabilitation instead of languishing at juvenile hall."

In San Francisco, alternatives to lock-up include home detention with electronic ankle monitors, a stay at a group home, mandatory check-ins at four city-funded nonprofit centers that are open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily, or participation in community programs that offer mentors and counseling.

National research shows finding alternatives to incarceration and stressing rehabilitation lowers the likelihood youth will commit more crimes, improves chances they'll stay in school and saves tax dollars.

But none of those options appear viable for illegal immigrant youth charged with felonies in San Francisco. Omar Khalif, the ombudsman for the juvenile probation department, said there's been more and more illegal immigrants held at the hall - and the numbers will keep climbing despite the pressure to get them down.

"The numbers are going to go up - they almost have to when you've got hard-to-place kids," Khalif said. "It's going to be a catch-22 no matter how you shape it."

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said he expects to see the numbers "rise exponentially." He also said illegal immigrants will likely see their stays increase dramatically because they will be held from the time of arrest to the time of their sentence, and then if found guilty, until ICE officials take them away and detain them longer in federal facilities before deportation. He said youth could be detained a year or longer in total.

Barry Krisberg is the president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a criminal justice research and policy organization based in Oakland. He said that if there's the political will, alternatives can still be found. He said there are ICE-approved placement centers, including one in Pleasanton, where San Francisco could send undocumented kids.

"The problem can be solved, and the idea that somehow this is going to inevitably lead to an overcrowded juvenile hall is just simply factually incorrect," he said.

Ana Perez, director of the Central American Resource Center in the Mission District, which works with immigrant families, said city officials seem to be missing the point. Why, she asked, are youth from Honduras leaving their countries and families behind to come to San Francisco to deal crack?

"I'm worried that we haven't done enough to figure out who these kids are, why they're coming, whether they've been victims of crimes in their home countries or here," she said. "They're criminals, but they're also children."
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