SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Tuesday released findings from the first inspection of immigrant detention facilities across the state, giving a glimpse into the conditions for detainees inside the centers at a time when the Trump administration has taken a more aggressive approach to confining people who are in the country illegally.
Conducted over the last year, the audit found conditions varied widely by facility. But virtually all centers confined detainees to cells for long periods of time _ sometimes up to 22 hours a day _ without any breaks, according to the report. Immigrants faced significant language barriers and challenges in accessing medical and mental health care and legal counsel, it said.
Some detention facilities have already begun taking steps to improve conditions, Becerra said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that he is prepared to take legal action against those that fail to comply with his office's recommendations.
The attorney general emphasized that people confined inside the centers are civilian detainees, not criminal detainees, who are waiting for determinations on their deportation status.
"We took the assignment very seriously," he said. "We hope that other states are watching because everyone in this country has constitutional rights and everyone at the end of the day _ child and adult _ deserves to be treated in a human way."
Lawyers with the attorney general's office spent one day at each of the state's 10 facilities and three public juvenile detention centers, including one in Yolo County where officials have been criticized over their improper labeling of some children as gang members.
The in-depth look at the state's detention system is the result of legislation passed in 2017, when lawmakers sought to increase oversight of those facilities and protections for immigrants amid Trump's calls for increased deportations. Other state efforts from that year prevented detention centers from adding more beds, and pledged $1 million in spending to ensure proper access to food, medical care and lawyers.
The attorney general's report coincides with another state audit released Tuesday that found cities and counties have also failed to provide proper oversight of their detention facilities.
"The state lacks complete information about how much it costs and what conditions the detainees face," that report said. "Also unclear are how many detainees are being held throughout California, where they are being held, and for how long."
Over the last three years, more than 74,000 immigrant detainees have been held at California's 10 public and private detention centers inspected by the attorney general's office. They have been held an average of more than 50 days, with one person staying in a facility for more than four years.
During a four-day period in August, inspectors with Becerra's office found that force had been used on the 19 detainees at a youth facility in Yolo County 27 times in the eight months prior to the review. In at least four instances reviewed on video by inspectors, the force used was found to violate the facility's policies. In one instance, a guard appeared to have tackled a juvenile detainee while he sat at a table, the report said.
Inspectors also found the minors were at times housed with boys in county juvenile detention, were often subjected to "take downs" from guards and lacked adequate mental health care.
The Yolo County facility is one of only two high-security placements in the nation for immigrant youth in the custody of federal agencies, most of whom traveled into the country alone. Inspectors from Becerra's office met with 19 juveniles housed at the facility, all but one from Central American countries.
Marisol Leon, a deputy state attorney general with the civil rights and enforcement division, called the stories of detainees, particularly of youth at Yolo facilities, "soul crushing." Attorneys heard of women not receiving proper medication, and a story of a baby ripped from a parent's arms, she said.
"They hear that youth are coming crossing multiple borders, fleeing violence, persecution and a lot of trauma and being re-traumatized in many ways in the center ... that was soul crushing," she said.
