These youths were committed by the juvenile and criminal courts to DJJ's eleven correctional facilities, four conservation camps and two residential drug treatment programs.
The DJJ underwent reorganization as required by a court agreement and the California State Legislature after widespread criticisms of conditions at its youth prisons.
A spokesman for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's prisons department said lengthy lockdowns at DJJ facilities were no longer used as punishment, but were sometimes necessary to maintain order.
In 2004, a six-month investigation by the San Jose Mercury News uncovered deep systemic flaws, concluding that violence was predominant, gangs ruled, and fear was pervasive.
In January 2005, Chief Deputy Inspector General Brett Morgan issued a report calling for the elimination of 23-hour-a-day incarceration policies for wards placed in administrative segregation and criticized the DJJ for failing to end the practice.
The inspector general's report outlines Maldonado's history and offers a portrait of Chaderjian as a violent lockup where gang leaders seem to have more clout than the Youth Correctional Officers.
Local and national media reported rampant violence, staff-on-ward beatings, canine attacks, multiple suicides, extended 23-hour lockdowns, and children attending classes while confined in cages.
By 2004, Governor Schwarzenegger had settled that lawsuit and pledged to make significant changes, but his administration has missed several court-imposed deadlines to implement reforms, including policies regarding suicide prevention, according to Specter.
In recent years, California's juvenile justice system has received intense and increasing criticism from experts nationwide for running draconian youth prisons.
Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton is one of the CYA's two maximum security lockups and holds those aged 18–24, and was described as the home for the worst-of-the-worst juvenile offenders.
[7] In the eight weeks before he died, Maldonado had rarely been let out of his cell and was denied family visits, mental health care, and educational services.
A report by California's Office of the Inspector General states "the effects of this eight-week isolation and service deprivation may have contributed to the Ward’s suicide.
"[8] Don Specter, director of the Prison Law Office, was quoted as saying "This is the first report that directly links their [i.e., the guards'] practices with a death.
The Prison Law Office website notes recent mission changes include reducing the number of the offenders and decreasing lockdowns.
Their reports confirmed serious abuses and major deficiencies in virtually every aspect of the CYA's operation, and criticized the agency for failing in its rehabilitative and public safety mission.
The system, according to the experts, was not simply failing to rehabilitate, it was demonstrably inflicting damage on incarcerated youths, who were often discharged with increased criminal sophistication, entrenched gang involvement and exacerbated mental illness.
Teens with mental health problems were made worse, not better, by a system that is failing to rehabilitate kids, according to reports by independent experts.