Re: “Gargantuan lawsuit budget shows what’s needed: more transparency” (Oct. 21, Opinion):
The editorial board highlights critical issues with Washington’s coverage of locking younger folks up in unsafe, overcrowded juvenile state prisons. It missed a chance to spotlight one other mechanism for larger transparency and accountability: requiring juvenile courtroom oversight of circumstances as soon as youth are dedicated to the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration.
Laws proposing simply that — common evaluations of a youngster’s progress as soon as dedicated to juvenile jail — didn’t advance final session. Senate Invoice 5296 (which was amended to shift common overview hearings to only one listening to on the midpoint of a youngster’s sentence) would have required {that a} decide maintain a listening to to look at the younger individual’s habits (together with infraction historical past) and likewise disruptions to out there programming in addition to how usually a youth had been topic to room confinement due to quick staffing or overcrowding.
With out that oversight, judges and the general public don’t have any visibility into what occurs as soon as a youngster is dedicated. If allowed to proceed, these horrific and harmful circumstances will fester till a disaster and an costly lawsuit drive them into the open. Washington’s youth (and our taxpayers) deserve higher.
Liz Trautman, govt director, Stand for Youngsters Washington, Seattle
