Opinion ID: 2519351
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: y.h.

Text: ¶ 2 In 2001, Y.H. was found by the Yakima County Juvenile Court to be a dependent child. Consequently, she was placed in foster care. Y.H. ran away from the foster home at least six times in 2003 and 2004. The first time she ran away, Yakima County Juvenile Court Commissioner Robert Inouye warned her that she needed to stay in the foster home in which she had been placed. After subsequent runs, Y.H. was found in contempt and sentenced to three to seven days in detention, with the option to purge her contempt by writing an essay and promising not to run away again. After her fourth disappearance, Y.H. was also moved to a new foster home. The fifth time Y.H. ran away, Commissioner Inouye warned her that if she ran again he might have to resort to the court's inherent contempt power in order to impose greater sanctions. ¶ 3 Finally, after the sixth time Y.H. ran away, respondent, Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), asked the juvenile court to exercise its inherent contempt power and impose a punishment greater than the statutory remedy of up to seven days in juvenile detention with an option to gain earlier release by purging the contempt. Commissioner Inouye conducted a hearing on DSHS's request and heard testimony from witnesses. He subsequently sentenced Y.H. to 30 days in detention for contempt, without the opportunity to purge the contempt. He found: If we continue to use [the] Becca procedure,[ [1] ] [Y.H.] will continue to make empty promises and continue to run and place her self at serious risk. . . . . [Y.H.]'s disobedience to the court orders has escalated in severity over time, rather than lessening in response to the Becca contempt sanctions. [Y.H.]'s mother believes that the Becca sanctions are inadequate to change [Y.H.]'s behavior, and that something different should be tried, if another run is to be avoided. There is reason to believe that an inherent contempt disposition will likely have coercive effect on [Y.H.]. It will become clear to [Y.H.] that continued future decisions to violate court orders may have much more serious consequences. It will give her a period of time to stabilize without the adverse influences which she seeks while one [sic] the run. It will not give her the opportunity to run again the next day after her contempt hearing (as she did on 8-30-03). The stakes are high at this point[. Y.H.] appears headed for a very dangerous life style which includes gangs, drugs and sex to the exclusion of stability, safety and education. . . . We are risking a catastrophe with her future if we are unable to formulate an adequate response to her bad choices. Clerk's Papers (CP) (23252-2-III) at 73-74. ¶ 4 Y.H. moved for revision of the order. A judge of the Yakima County Superior Court upheld the commissioner's use of inherent contempt power to impose a 30-day sentence. Y.H. then appealed to the Court of Appeals.