U.S. Steps Up Scrutiny Of Civil Rights Violations Against Youths In Detention

Juvenile Justice Digest, Dec 31, 2003

The Justice Department has increased the pace of investigations into civil rights violations in juvenile detention centers after bringing only one such case in the previous four years of the Bush and Clinton administrations.

The Clinton administration brought only one piece of litigation involving juvenile detainees, in Louisiana, which the Bush administration eventually settled.

In recent months, however, the Justice Department's civil rights division under the direction of Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta has brought actions in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The Civil Rights Division also successfully resolved investigations of other juvenile justice facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Investigations affecting juvenile justice facilities are pending in California, Michigan and Indiana.

Acosta said the Justice Department intends to hold law enforcement officers, states and private contractors that violate rights of incarcerated youth to account for their illegal actions.

Federal law since 1980 under the the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) directs the Justice Department to identify and root out systemic abuses, but the few cases that have been brought involved primarily adult facilities.

The Justice Department won a conviction in Fort Meyers, Fla., against Detective Corporal Wyatt Henderson of the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office for violating the civil rights of a juvenile by fracturing his jaw and lying to conceal the assault.

"Police officers are vested with the public trust, not only to enforce, but to abide by the criminal laws," said Acosta.

The Justice Department also cited three officers in Georgia.

Stephanie Henry, an officer at the Dougherty County Jail in Albany, Ga., pled guilty to the use of excessive force against a female youth detained at the facility.

Two additional defendants, Sgt Kevin Clark and Officer Juanita Clark, no relation, were indicted along with Henry, and charged with conspiracy to cover up the use of force, and with submitting false reports during the ensuing investigation.

In Mississippi, the Justice Department cited alleged violations at two state-run juvenile facilities: the Oakley Training School and the Columbia Training School.

Acosta said the lawsuit culminated a year-long investigation, which revealed systematic abuses of the civil rights of juveniles.

"Our investigation found evidence that juveniles were routinely hit, shoved, and slapped by staff, that juveniles were sprayed with pepper spray while in restraints. That in some cases, suicidal girls were stripped naked and isolated for extended time periods in windowless empty 'dark rooms,' with only a drain in the cement floor to serve as a toilet," said Acosta.

"We found evidence of systemic abuses, including hog-tying and pole-shackling. It was even reported that girls, overcome by the heat during drills, were forced to eat their own vomit."

The department provided further details of unsafe and unsound conditions in a 48-page letter sent to Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove nearly six months before filing the lawsuit.

Although Mississippi made some improvements, according to the Justice Department, federal attorneys were never able to negotiate a settlement with the state, thus the lawsuit.

"Given the nature and the pattern of the violations identified, we believe that a remedy backed by the authority of the federal judiciary is necessary to effect lasting and systemic change," said Acosta.

"We do not lightly seek to place state facilities under consent decrees, but believe that one is necessary in this case."

In another important state case, the Justice Department reached settlements with Maryland and a contractor, Youth Services International Inc., a unit of Correctional Services Corp.

The government said the state and the contractor violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in the mistreatment of juveniles with hearing disabilities.

The complaining juvenile alleged that during his five-month detention in a state facility he was never provided access to an interpreter, and that during a 13-month stay at a YSI-operated facility, he was permitted only limited access to an interpreter.

The agreement requires Maryland and the companies to ensure that auxiliary aids and services, including qualified interpreters, are available to juveniles with hearing impairments where necessary for effective communication.

The settlement also requires assistive technology such as text telephones and the development of training programs for staff.

Acosta said the Maryland case represented the Bush administration's commitment to its "New Freedom Initiative" that promotes participation by all persons with disabilities in all areas of society.

The Justice Department is also conducting an investigationin Maryland into conditions at the Cheltenham Youth Facility and the Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School.