Improving Conditions of Confinement

CCLP attorneys have extensive experience in assessing and working to improve conditions of confinement in jails, prisons, juvenile detention facilities and training schools.  Staff currently work throughout the country helping jurisdictions assess conditions in their own facilities and address deficiencies.  Staff also are prepared to advocate and litigate, if necessary, to improve egregious conditions elsewhere.

CCLP provides training and technical assistance to Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) sites around the country as they work to address one of the core components of JDAI: ensuring safe and humane conditions of confinement in detention facilities.  CCLP, along with the Youth Law Center, has developed a detailed set of standards and guidance materials to help jurisdictions assess their detention centers.  CCLP staff are available to provide training to sites engaged in self-assessment and support during the assessment and remediation process, and are also featured on a 2-hour DVD overview of the site assessment process, standards and tools.

CCLP also works with DC’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) to improve conditions of confinement, through a grant from the Public Welfare Foundation.  CCLP staff are training DYRS personnel to understand children’s rights in institutions and helping them become familiar with best practices in youth confinement, and are now working with DYRS to develop a community advisory board and new methods for assessing conditions at its detention and secure placement facilities.

Through a partnership with the National Disability Rights Network, CCLP staff have begun to train and support advocates charged with protecting people with disabilities from abuse in institutions.  Disabilities rights organizations around the country are responding to a growing concern about the care that youth with mental health disorders and other disabilities receive in secure confinement.  CCLP staff is also working with the NDRN to support advocates charged with protecting people with disabilities from abuse in facilities.