Might a precedent be set here? Or will this turn out to be politicians vying for votes and DHS's way of getting more $$$ from the tax payer to stop the abuse? Some of the abuses sound very familiar to those at programs. Are they consider unacceptable in a facility privately owned and operated, but not so in a government run facility?
Deborah
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0307/15/m02.htmlAbuse cited at youth training centers
Rights violated, Justice Dept. says
By Patrice Sawyer
Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer
A 13-year-old boy under suicide watch at Columbia Training School reported he was hogtied face-down with his hands and feet shackled together.
Suicidal girls at Columbia said they were stripped naked and were placed in a dark room for as long as three days to a week with only a hole in the floor as a bathroom.
These examples form the basis of U.S. Department of Justice findings that the CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY RIGHTS OF JUVENILES under the care of the Mississippi Department of Human Services were violated.
In a 47-page letter, Ralph Boyd Jr., assistant attorney general with the Justice Department, also said the state's two juvenile correctional facilities, Columbia and Oakley Training School in Raymond, failed to provide required general education services and special education services.
In addition, the schools violated children's First Amendment rights by forcing them to engage in religious activities, he said.
Boyd said the Justice Department is willing to work with state officials to resolve the problems but says if no amicable solution can be reached, a lawsuit can be filed to protect the youth housed at Oakley and Columbia.
The Justice Department's letter comes a year and a half after 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson filed a complaint alleging poor medical conditions at the state's juvenile detention centers. He said then he had received complaints from parents alleging sexual abuse and substandard medical conditions.
"When we made the complaint in October 2001, we thought there would be some minor violations perhaps but nothing to the magnitude this report brought out," Thompson said Monday. "There are clearly some things going on in these two institutions that are illegal, and I think those employees who are guilty of doing them ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Thompson said he plans to send a copy of the Justice Department's findings to the district attorneys in the counties where the two facilities are housed to see if criminal charges can be filed.
Among the disciplinary practices used at the facilities are pole-shackling ? the improper use and overuse of restraints and isolation ? pepper spray and staff assaults on youth, the letter said.
Other Justice Department findings:
Mentally ill youths are often untreated while in the facilities, even though they are admitted with a history of mental illness.
Youth at Columbia and Oakley receive inadequate medical and dental care.
Youth are not provided the proper medications for their physical or mental well-being.
Oakley's buildings and grounds are unsafe and unsanitary. Dirt, spider webs, mouse droppings and dead roaches were found in the dental clinic, and roaches and rodent droppings were found in the kitchen.
Columbia and Oakley youth have no access to a grievance system if they have complaints about their treatment.
Staffs at both facilities lack adequate training in several areas, including behavioral management techniques, assessment of suicidal youth, crisis management and working with violent youth.
Because of staffing shortages, the staff is overworked and under stress.
[Notice that last entry? Leaves the door proped open to write off the abuse due to monetary problems.]
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0307/16/m03.htmlThe facilities also failed to provide required general education and special education services and violated children's First Amendment rights by forcing them to engage in religious activities, according to the Justice Department. Some of the findings were based on allegations made by juveniles at Oakley, which houses all males, and Columbia, which houses males and females.
One boy said he was hogtied with his hands and feet shackled together. One girl said she was spritzed with pepper spray for yelling at an employee during an exercise drill, and several girls reported being forced to eat their own vomit if they threw up during exercise.
The place once called "the dark room" where children were kept in isolation is no more, and the practice of hogtying a child has been stopped, Moore said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/South/07 ... .probe.ap/The report said boys were forced to run around tables for hours with mattresses on their backs.
"Girls are punished in the military field by being forced to run with automobile tires around their bodies or carrying logs," the report said. "Girls reported being forced to eat their own vomit if they throw up from exercising in the hot sun."
The federal report said there was no rehabilitative value to the "cruel and demeaning" exercises.
Justice Department workers also found unsanitary kitchen conditions at Oakley, including mouse droppings and cockroaches.
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And as you may have guessed, this turns into a story about how underfunded the facilities are.
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0307/17/m02.htmlLawmakers approved giving the agency $76,096,200 in state funds, which was less than what was requested. Vacancies have been high and layoffs threatened but DHS officials have said the agency could live with a $15 million deficit.
And a political ploy.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/6359032.htmAsked after the tour why he accused the Justice Department of acting for political reasons, Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, said the report was designed for its shock value. He said its release appeared timed to hurt the administration of Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat who is seeking re-election.
Most students live in cottages that each house up to 30 of the T-shirt and fatigue-dressed cadets. Those considered a security risk are housed in a 265-bed medium security building and wear green jumpsuits and flip-flops.
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0307/24/meric.htmlSome of the problems have nothing to do with funding and are simply a matter of basic human decency, as Rep. Walter Robinson, D-Bolton, alluded to on Tuesday during a tour of Oakley.
More on Bethel:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=2296&forum=9Bethel and Columbia Training School
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=2516&forum=9http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?So ... 14&start=0[ This Message was edited by: Deborah on 2004-01-15 05:40 ]