In the span of time most boys his age have graduated from middle school and gotten a driving permit, one teen has been locked up at San Francisco juvenile hall — and his loved ones blame unreasonable administrators who have failed to find him a suitable group home.

He’s been held for 566 days, celebrated his 14th and 15th birthdays in the hall, and told his attorney that he finds himself feeling suicidal with each passing day.

“I feel like I will never be released,” the teen, identified by his family only as WR, wrote in a letter. “I only have misdemeanors, but I am kept here while other kids with more serious charges like robbery and gun possession get released. I feel like I am getting more depressed as the days and weeks go by.”

Judge Susan Breall of San Francisco Superior Court ruled on Jan. 23 that WR needed more structure than he could receive from living with his family. Relatives say the teenager requires special education classes and suffers from depression and attention deficit disorder.

But since the judge’s ruling, probation officers have been unable to find a group home that either would take him, was a good fit or was suitable for his needs. The teen has spent the past nine months in juvenile hall, waiting for a placement — this in addition to the 318 days he had already spent in custody for four misdemeanor convictions before Breall’s ruling in January, according to court documents.

“The court says the delay is justified, but it really isn’t,” said his uncle, whom The Chronicle is not naming to protect the identity of the juvenile.

“They feel that he needs a lot more help. We feel that if the courts want to help him and stabilize him, then keeping him in there isn’t stabilizing him. It’s worsening whatever is going on.”

Series of misdemeanors

WR entered the juvenile courts system when he was 13 and living with his mother in San Mateo County.

He’s had a series of run-ins with the law, including accusations of robbery and drug use, but overall has been convicted only of four misdemeanors: possession of a dirk or dagger, two counts of vandalism, and possession of a controlled substance, as well as probation violations for being late or missing school.

Police found the dagger in his backpack in January 2013 after he left home following a fight with his mother . Six months later, he got in trouble for going to the home of a boy who had arranged to fight him after school, and kicking his door hard enough to crack the doorjamb.

He spent some time in juvenile hall for those offenses, and in April 2014, officers who stopped him and three other boys in a park found 1.5 grams of the drug MDMA, or ecstasy, in his possession. After being sent back to juvenile hall for that offense, he got in trouble for doodling on a wall.

“He has also had some issues with missing, or being late for school, which is not all that surprising given his special educational needs, which are not likely being met,” attorney Jeffrey Glick wrote in an appeal on behalf of WR.

“None of this, however, warrants the type of lengthy incarceration he has endured.”

Judge’s viewpoint

The maximum time for confinement for those four misdemeanor charges is two years, but it is rare for any youth to be held that long, experts say. Because the goal of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation, not incarceration, courts typically look for alternatives to juvenile hall, taking into consideration the youth’s mental health, living situation and family involvement.

A spokeswoman for the San Francisco courts declined to comment because she is prevented by law from speaking on juvenile matters. However, court documents provided by the family highlight some of Judge Breall’s reasoning for seeking a group home for WR.

His parents had him when they were young, and have a “poor and hostile relationship” with each other, according to the documents. His misdemeanor case was moved from San Mateo County to San Francisco, where his father and grandmother lived, because of escalating problems with his mother.

Both his parents wanted him to live with his father, and they developed a plan in which he’d be required to undergo anger management, counseling and family therapy, and be tracked with a GPS monitor. But “the court rejected (WR’s) plan to have him live with his father based on the father’s history of anger issues, being disrespectful and abusive toward (WR)’s mother, and because the court believed (WR) needed more structure, and had to be more respectful toward his mother,” court documents state.

Family turned down

The family petitioned for WR to stay with his uncle and grandmother in San Francisco, but the court denied the motion for him to stay with his family in April, once again citing the need for structure. Probation officers were able to place him at a group home near Fresno in May, but WR ran away after just 10 days, according to his attorney, Dale Major.

Since then, he’s been in San Francisco juvenile hall, a situation that Michael Smith, director of the Youth Justice Education Clinic at Loyola Law School, said he found problematic. Even taking into consideration WR’s special education and mental health needs, the typical delay in finding placement is two to three weeks, Smith said.

Fewer group homes

“There are a lot fewer group homes than there were, and that’s certainly causing some issues, but this sort of delay is unusual,” he said. “If they come back and they haven’t identified anywhere for him to go and it doesn’t seem anywhere is on the horizon, then they need to look at different options.”

With about 1,000 programs in the state and nine months of WR being held in a legal limbo, his family said authorities should have been able to find him some place that worked by now. According to the family and court documents, probation officers have reached out to about 10 programs, one out of state, and all but the Fresno home he ran away from declined to take WR.

While saying he could not comment on WR’s case because of privacy issues, Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Allen Nance said juvenile hall is a temporary detention setting. He agreed with Smith’s assessment that typically, finding a longer-term placement takes a few weeks at most.

“Once we determine that juvenile hall is not the place a young person needs to be, any day beyond that is too long in my opinion, because it’s delaying the necessary intervention and the road to rehabilitation that we like to get the youth on,” Nance said.

Depressed and angry

But he added, “What we don’t want is to rush kids into facilities that are not suitable so they ultimately fail, and they may find themselves in a situation that is worse than it was before. It really is a very delicate process and one we don’t engage in frivolously, because we recognize that there are young people’s lives at stake.”

But WR’s uncle says he’s watching this delicate process bring down his nephew’s spirit with each passing day. He said he’s seen his nephew go from determined and willing to make changes in his life to being withdrawn and expressing thoughts of suicide, lashing out and getting into fights in juvenile hall.

“In his mind, he’s asking himself, ‘What is so wrong with me that kids who are in here for stabbing people are getting out but I am not?’” the uncle said.

Next week, WR is poised to celebrate his 16th birthday behind bars.

“To a certain point, you can only hold him for so long,” the uncle said. “Something has to give.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @VivianHo