When Lee Seale became Sacramento County’s chief probation officer in 2013, officials at his juvenile hall were grappling with how to prevent probation officers from using force against young detainees after multiple lawsuits, the resignation of a prior leader and a judge’s decree.
For more than a decade, guards often resorted to “dipping,” a practice in which a juvenile offender’s arm is twisted behind his or her back before the child is flipped face down with a knee behind the neck, court records alleged. Minors said they were subject to strip searches and cold, filthy cells. They reported broken limbs and scratches on their lips, chins and noses.
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