The secret to ending solitary confinement at youth detention centers across the United States might just hide behind a nondescript door down a long hallway in a government building in Sacramento.
From the outside, the room appears like any other in the Sacramento Juvenile Detention facility, but inside, gauzy filters take the edge off the fluorescent lighting, and bright murals evoke an underwater vibe. This multi-sensory de-escalation room (MSDR), dubbed "the Cove" by staff and the youth they serve, has been designed as a safe space to take kids in conflict. Here, kids can use a feelings chart, or play team-building games to build communications skills, or simply talk with a staff member about their struggles. Paired with staff training, and youth educational and recreational programs, the Cove is part of an ambitious program to minimize uses of force and solitary confinement in Sacramento, and is part of a larger trend to eliminate both in youth detention centers across the country.
Ricardo Lemus would have welcomed the Cove when he was a teenager. Lemus was 15 when he was arrested on a weapons charge and spent the next five years in various youth detention facilities in Northern California. He was frequently engaged in fights and riots, and, consequently, was often confined to a cell not much larger than the arm span of his five-foot-six frame.
[For more on this story by MOLLY MCCLUSKEY, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...confinement-for-kids]
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