Justin Daniel Maldonado.

That's the name of the fifth young person to die while in one of California's youth correctional facilities within the last 18 months.

Maldonado, 18, had been in youth lock-up since for over two years for auto theft. He committed suicide on August 31, inside the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton. I'll leave it to the Pacific News Service to provide the details, in this heartfelt story written by members of the Los Angeles Youth Justic Coalition, all young enough themselves to qualify for "Chad," as the facility is known, should they wind up on the wrong side of the law.

What's clear is that Maldonado, like thousands of young people in California, was a disturbed young man with many needs that were not being met, in the control of and at the mercy of a juvenile justice system that is failing even the basic responsibility of keeping young offenders alive.