What's Next For Tony Monroe? -- Juvenile-Detention Facilities Can't Handle Him; They Want 17-Year-Old Imprisoned As An Adult

CHEHALIS - When an inmate set a fire in a cottage while other teens slept at the Green Hill juvenile-detention facility here, state employees wanted it videotaped.

As the tape rolled, a siren blared and young, blanket-wrapped inmates were seen being escorted outside.

Antonial Monroe, 17, who is accused of setting the fire, stepped into the picture, coming closer and closer to the camera until his boyish face filled the screen.

"I was gonna commit suicide," he yells into the camera. "I was gonna commit suicide, all because of you. You wouldn't take care of my medical needs."

Monroe's medical needs are the crux of an unusual case.

To the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration - which aims to educate and rehabilitate kid criminals - the Bellevue youth is among the few it simply can neither help nor safely house.

As a result, Juvenile Administration officials want to ship Monroe to an adult prison. They tried to do that by an administrative decision but were blocked by a court order. It may happen anyway because of recent court action.

This week, a Lewis County commissioner ordered that Monroe face adult trial for first-degree arson and two counts of custodial assault for incidents this winter at Green Hill.

If convicted, Monroe will serve his outstanding juvenile sentence and any new sentences at an adult prison, said Richard McCartan, an assistant attorney general.

His grandmother, Bernice Broulette, opposes that.

For her, Tony Monroe is a troubled youth whose disabilities cause him to act out. The state has failed to give him medical attention and rehabilitative services, Broulette said.

When he was a year and a half old, Monroe fell from a third-story window. He survived, despite striking his head on the concrete below. Since then, he has had temper tantrums and acts aggressively. He has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, a neurological condition that leaves youths easily distracted, inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive. The disorder also can exacerbate many learning, social and emotional problems.

"They are shifting him from institution to institution because they do not know how to deal with it," said his grandmother, who continues to visit him. "They are treating it as a criminalization problem, not as a disability."

Monroe's criminal life has kept him in juvenile custody for all but eight months of the past five years.

Frazzled custodial staffers say the teen has assaulted inmates and employees at three juvenile institutions. To make matters worse, he refuses to take medication that could temper his outbursts, officials say.

"He fits a very, very small percentage (of juvenile offenders) who continually act out to the point the facility says, `We've exhausted all our programs,' " said David Charles, Green Hill acting superintendent.

"We're doing the best we can with Tony. We have other kids with Attention Deficit Disorder in this facility and they're not acting out. . . . We have a program that responds to those kids. We call it the special-needs unit."

Regrettably, said Charles, most of the things tried on Tony Monroe have failed.

Monroe's mother was in and out of his life.

Neglected and roaming the streets since he was 10, Monroe had links to a gang before he was arrested at age 12 and sent to Echo Glen, a Snoqualmie facility for young and first-time offenders. He was convicted Aug. 24, 1990 of a number of offenses in King County, including assault, robbery and criminal trespass.

Monroe was placed in programs at Echo Glen that let him work for success. A partial day without an incident earned him privileges and positive reinforcement.

"Tony's a tough case, no question about it," said Ron Baltrusis, Echo Glen associate superintendent.

The staff member assigned to Monroe was hopeful. Each day, he offered Monroe a new opportunity to succeed, seeing a positive side. Others only saw a youth who continually assaulted staff and other inmates.

"It's hard to remain hopeful when you're dealing with Tony. That's why I thought the staff person who got assigned to him was the best thing that could have ever happened. Yet, we were still unsuccessful," Baltrusis said.

On March 15, 1993, Monroe was transferred to Maple Lane, a facility near Centralia which houses kids whose average age is 16. Monroe was there about a year, transferring from open cottages to more secure units when his behavior flared up.

"Tony has varying degrees of success for varying degrees of time. There were periods of time we felt he was coming around," said Carol Porter, Maple Lane superintendent. "Then he would slip back into some negative behavior."

Two months after his release from Maple Lane, Monroe was arrested for being the wheel man in a July 10, 1994 drive-by shooting. Convicted of reckless endangerment in September, Monroe was sent to Green Hill in Chehalis, which handles older and more criminally sophisticated youths.

The institution's most stringent tool is to put youths on seven-day restricted custody.

They get just one hour outside their cell per day. The youth earns more time by being good. It's a tactic frequently used in adult prisons, which troubles acting superintendent Charles.

"I think I'm going against the mission of trying to rehabilitate a kid if (restricted custody is) the only means and method I can prevent him from hurting other people and destroying state property," Charles said.

Monroe's extensive history of custodial assaults prompted Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration officials to try to transfer him to an adult prison this spring.

It was a rare move.

No juvenile has similarly been moved to the Department of Corrections in the past three years.

Monroe's transfer to an adult prison is being opposed by Evergreen Legal Services, which filed a civil lawsuit in Thurston County. Monroe also is among the inmates the firm represents in a lawsuit that alleges misuse of pepper spray at Green Hill.