Exclusive: California fines Sacramento County for moving more foster kids into cells
California Department of Social Services has fined Sacramento County for placing new foster children in a former juvenile justice facility even after the state barred it from doing so.
The county placed two teenagers, ages 14 and 16, at the Rosemont facility on May 30 — two weeks after it received the letter from the sate.
“This action is in direct violation of the May 16, 2023, Notice of Application Denial which prohibited youth from being admitted to the (Warren E. Thornton Youth) Center after May 16,” stated the June 5 letter from DSS to Melissa Lloyd, deputy director of the county’s Department of Child Protective Services. “A civil penalty of $200 per day is being assessed for the youth being admitted to an unlicensed community care facility beginning on May 30, 2023, and will continue until all youth are removed from the WET Center.”
The county’s accumulated penalties total $3,600 as of Friday, according to the state.
The county announced Thursday that it would remove all foster children from building Friday, and shut it down.
The Sacramento Bee twice asked the county for the letter Thursday, but the county did not provide it. The state then sent The Bee the letter Thursday evening.
The county said it planned to move the children on Friday to three single-family houses.
“If we had such locations on May 30th, we would have taken the youth to the (houses), in lieu of the WETYC,” Samantha Mott, a county spokeswoman, said in an email Friday. “CPS was able to place the vast majority of children brought to the WETYC by law enforcement or CPS within 8-10 hours, but often times teens and siblings sets take longer to place. Youth who return to WETYC on their own after leaving a placement sometimes remained for extended periods. The county continues to work collaboratively with various teams at CDSS and contracted technical assistance teams to discuss child specific scenarios that can help us secure appropriate placements.”
The county has faced backlash for housing foster children in the WET Center, including from state lawmakers, since The Bee was the first to report in April that the county was housing kids at the Branch Center Road facility without a state license. The county has applied for licenses for each of the three houses, the release stated.
The county has been housing about 12 to 16 children, mostly teens, at the facility since August, despite several letters from state officials advising against it. State officials have been sending the county letters about the facility since as early as September, when DSS Foster Care ombudsperson Larry Fluharty wrote that the environment could “retraumatize” youth and make them feel “physically and psychologically unsafe.”
As of Thursday there were eight children living in the WET Center, all of which were being moved to the houses the county is leasing for about $20,000 a month total.
The county is facing two lawsuits related to the facility.
The cells are rooms that are about 16 feet by 8 feet, which is too small, state regulators wrote in a May 16 letter. The mattresses do not have springs and are “very thin,” and there are no drawers or closets in violation of state law. The metal toilets in the cells have been covered with wood and shelves while bedroom windows hinder privacy in rooms, the letter stated. The facility entrance’s metal detector “violates the right to be free from unreasonable searches of personal belongings and the right to be treated with respect,” the letter stated.
Prior to the WET Center, the county housed the children in an office building nearby, which the state also deemed unsuitable.
This story was originally published June 16, 2023 at 1:30 PM.
