by Nemysyssss » Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:53 pm
Before I waste any more of my time trying to give you “my side of the story” to try and keep this discussion “fair and balanced”, and not a soap box for you to try and advocate your agenda, answer just these simple questions for me.<br><br>1. What actual personal experience have you had inside of the Youth Authority (Preston) which gave you this authority to speak out against the Youth Authority Personnel such as you do? <br><br>It is one thing to attack the System which is responsible for the lack of positive results in a program, but to viciously and without merit attack individuals, whom you have never met or observed in this working environment, is very troubling to me.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>“Sorry. I don't trust nemysysss too much. CYA facilities are not good places. Abuse is common. They create as many "lestats" as they cure, I'm sure. In fact, they provide no decent mental health care to speak of. Be curious about Vacaville type programs in there.”<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>2. Have you personally seen with your very own eyes, in real time, (not an edited video) a widespread prevalent abuse of wards (physical, sexual, etc…) within Preston by the Staff who have been placed in charge of them?<br><br><br> <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>“Wards have had their heads slammed against walls and rails and have been beaten and burned by tear gas canisters and Maced for no reason. ... Staff often use chemical agents on wards who either do not require restraining or who are already restrained. ... Wards are simply locked in their rooms for weeks or months with no programming and no constructive release for their frustration, tension and fear. ... In addition to their failure to prevent ward-on-ward violence, CYA staff have actually encouraged, permitted and/or provided wards with the opportunity to fight each other,” says the suit. Clearly, the allegations showed inhumane treatment for California teenagers.”<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>“You will never discover the truth and the solutions to your problems if only faults are what you seek”<br><br>3. Have you ever seen or read about a Staff member (in video, photo, or any other way) after they had been brutally attacked by one or more of your precious, innocent, disenfranchised, and victimized young children?<br><br>4. For that matter, have you ever seen, personally, a victim of your precious charges which you so valiantly advocate for?<br><br>5. Do you feel that it was the fault of the “victims” of your charges attacks against them, for not understanding or caring about their situation or their abusive upbringing?<br><br>6. Are the criminal actions of your charges justified because of their unfortunate upbringing and or abusive treatments?<br><br>7. Do you feel that the faults of your charges lie directly on the State of California who houses them after they have committed their crimes?<br><br>8. Do you place any responsibility on the “family unit” which brought and raised, in one way or another, these disadvantaged individuals into the world? <br><br>9. Do you feel that it is, wholly, the responsibility of the State of California to provide for support and opportunity for parolees?<br><br>10. Have you ever volunteered in any California Youth Authority facility, so as to, offer help and guidance to these troubled Youth, to make a difference where others couldn’t? <br><br>11. Have you ever participated in any of the Church volunteer programs which minister to these Youth within the confines of the Institutions of the Youth Authority, looking for an answer?<br><br>12. Are you in any way, concerned for the health and safety of the Line Staff within the California Youth Authority, who are actively trying to make positive changes in these lives that have been dealt a “bad” card from the deck of life?<br><br>13. Do you feel that convicted criminals or youthful offenders should take responsibility for their actions, or should they continue to act out negatively and blame the State and their alleged CYA abusers for their criminal behaviors?<br><br>14. Do you have any proven or tested methods with which to implement into the dysfunctional CYA rehabilitation system which will help all of these troubled youth searching for answers to their antisocial and predatory behaviors?<br><br>15. Can you guarantee with no uncertainties that your proposed programs of change can and will affect all of the youthful offenders within the CYA in a more successful and measurable result without placing Staff or wards in dangerous situations?<br><br>16. What is your definition of the word nemysyssss?<br><br><br>In closing, I would like to add, that the State of California is ultimately responsible for the housing, rehabilitation, and re-integration of these Youthful Offenders. I, like you, also feel that those responsible for administering these directives have done a very poor job giving the Line Staff working within these facilities the proper tools, support, and environment, with which to work. To attack individual Staff whose only wrong is in trying to help these Youthful offenders in a failing system is inexcusable and irresponsible.<br> The Politicians also must not be removed from this responsibility, for it is ultimately their support, legislation and financial backing which make possible all that is, or is not, available to these Institutions, to implement a successful program which can be measured in terms of a productive citizen being released back into society vs. a recidivism rate which is inherently high. <br><br><br>As I stated previously:<br><br><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>“I am not absolving the State of California, nor the Directors office of the Youth Authority of any wrong doing. In fact, I blame them for much of the problems the CYA faced over the last 10 years. So much has been taken from the CYA in terms of funding and program cuts that the rehabilitation system with which the CYA staff could utilize left a lot to be desired. It was minimal at best. At Preston, all of the shop classes such as Refrigeration air, Masonry, Landscape gardening ect.. were cut as a result of budget cuts and restraints. This left nothing but academic classes for the wards. Unfortunately for a large majority of wards a simple GED would not afford them a good paying job or any real hopes of getting a job which would help them cope with all of the temptations that crime and the allure that quick money through crime presented to them.”<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>That said, I would also like to add that it was not the State which raised these Youthful Offenders from birth to incarceration. It was the “family unit”; whatever socio/economic condition it happened to be subjected to. <br><br> For the most part, in my experiences with these troubled youth, the “family unit” was not in existence or was severely disabled due to a lack of a positive Father figure or both parents missing and the responsibility fell into the lap of the Grandparent(s) or foster care (which is a whole different story). In many cases criminal activities were in so many words “a family affair”. It was a business or occupation of several generations within this unit, and this lifestyle of victimizing the weak and innocent was the only learned behavior this child knew. To state one of the most obvious faults of this defunct system which is failing miserably (also in my opinion) is the fact that these youth were active or inherently aware of this criminal or disadvantaged lifestyle from the ages of, let’s say, 6 up to adulthood or the time of their incarceration. Given the incarceration (counseling and rehabilitation) time within the States system (CYA) of approximately 2 years, it is easy to see that the actual “hands on” rehabilitation efforts are greatly disproportional to the amount of time these Youth had to learn their negative behaviors. Then to parole them back into the same conditions and environments, which had a definite negative impact on their lives in the first place, seems utterly counterproductive and self defeating.<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>