Jetson closure pushed

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 19, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A state senator said Friday he will submit legislation next week to close Jetson Center for Youth by June 30, 2009.

“Louisiana was once notorious for having the most brutal facilities in the country,” Sen. Donald Cravins Jr. said at a rally on the steps of the State Capitol. “Some legislators had the fortitude to try and stop that, but here we are five years later without much progress.”

The Opelousas Democrat said the legislation he plans to introduce would not only close Jetson, an 850-acre boys juvenile prison near Baker, but also give the Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission more power to make sure reforms take place.

The commission was formed during the Blanco administration to oversee reforms in the juvenile justice system.

The Advocate reported this week that promised reforms of the state’s three secure care facilities for boys have never happened.

The reforms were approved in the Juvenile Justice Act of 2003 and promised among other things the building of regional care facilities housing small groups of boys. Not one of those facilities has been built.

Instead, boys who violate laws are often sent by judges to one of the state’s juvenile prisons, including Jetson, Swanson (in Monroe) and Bridge City centers for youth, where the teenagers often end up spending years for minor crimes.

Teenage inmates at Jetson have said brutality has returned and they are beaten by guards and by other inmates and that sexual assaults are not uncommon.

Cravins, a member of the commission, which met Friday, told members he visited Jetson on Thursday and came away with concerns.

“There was no hope in the youths’ eyes; just hopelessness,” he said.

Cravins said some teenagers at Jetson told him they had been beaten while there. He did not say whether they identified their attackers.

A Lake Charles mother also told the commission her son was attacked at Jetson on Thursday.

“Two boys jumped my son and tried to rape him,” Kathleen Qualls said. “He had to fight them and no one came to rescue him. Our kids are supposed to be safe there.”