• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 9, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:10 a.m.

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A state Senate bill that sets deadlines for closing Jetson — a state-run juvenile prison with a history of brutality — and for establishing smaller, regionalized juvenile detention facilities has a good chance of passing, said State Sen. Donald Cravins Jr.

Cravins, D-Opelousas, who introduced Senate Bill 749, said he expects new legislators to support the measure.

“I think they bring an open mind and an eagerness,” he said recently. “I think they’re ready to adopt this legislation and get reforms moving forward.”

But Cravins said he isn’t so sure whether older members of the Legislature will support the bill.

“Some of them have watched us throw money at reforms  and then nothing happens,” Cravins said. “They’ve become apathetic because it’s the same problem we were facing five years ago.”

The bill sets June 30, 2009, as the deadline to close Jetson. But it allows a five-month extension if the Office of Youth Development needs extra time to find other facilities or alternative programs for the teenage offenders.

“These deadlines might change before we’re finished,” Cravins said. “I want OYD to sign off on it so we have deadlines that work.”

Richard Thompson, the head of OYD, refused this week to answer The Advocate’s questions about reforms or Cravins’ proposed legislation.

“OYD will have to find another location for smaller facilities in Baton Rouge as well as some other areas of the state for these kids,” Cravins said. “That could take some time.”

Even if his legislation doesn’t pass, Cravins said he thinks Jetson ultimately will close.

“That doesn’t mean they won’t find other uses for the 800-acre facility,” he said.

Jetson and the state’s other two juvenile prisons, Bridge City Center for Youth and Swanson Center for Youth, have had problems in recent years.

In 1995, Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group, said Louisiana’s juvenile prisons were among the worst in the nation and fell below international standards.