ALEXANDER LOCKUP

Lockup's kids said rewarded for violent acts

Children housed at Arkansas' largest juvenile lockup reported that staff members have directed youths to bother, slap or even punch other youths in exchange for rewards such as candy bars, according to a report from a nonprofit disability-rights group.

In a 19-page report obtained Monday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, monitors from the Disability Rights Center of Arkansas wrote that youths told them during visits this summer that the practice occurred "frequently" at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander.

The report calls for an immediate investigation into the practice and recommended several other changes at the facility in response to other reports of violence. The report is scheduled for public release today.

The center's monitors reported allegations of physical abuse by staff members and assaults in "dead spots" in the lockup's video surveillance system. The report also noted that the facility lacks adequate psychiatric services to care for the 100 youths housed there, including 85 youths who are prescribed psychotropic medications.

Tom Masseau, the executive director of the disability-rights group, said Monday that the monitors consider the allegations regarding staff members rewarding youths for carrying out assaults to be credible because they came from several youths who were housed in different areas at the Alexander campus.

"It's not just one. It's others in other units, and you started seeing a pattern," Masseau said.

"There was some staff who would use these reinforcements -- the contraband, the candy bars and different things -- to go after and assault the other youth there ... and it wouldn't get reported," he said.

Masseau said the monitors didn't find any evidence that youths were seriously injured by any assaults resulting from the rewards practice. The youths also didn't name the staff members involved for fear of retaliation, he said.

In response to the finding, the disability-rights group recommended in the report that the Youth Services Division "immediately" launch an investigation into the allegations, and "if substantiated, bring the practice to an immediate end and appropriately discipline any staff person who is involved in or condoned this behavior."

Masseau's group has authority under federal law to investigate facilities that house people with disabilities, such as the Alexander lockup.

Late Monday, Arkansas Department of Human Services spokesman Amy Webb said the Youth Services Division has been working to remedy several of the problems identified in the report.

But agency leaders weren't fully aware of the details of the allegations until the disability-rights group brought the claims to their attention in a recent meeting.

"We want to do everything we can to make sure the youth are safe. At this point, we don't have any reason to believe they're not safe. However, this report raises concerns for us, and we're working quickly to investigate the matter," she said.

The staff members accused of being involved in the practice aren't state workers. Instead, they work for Florida-based contractor G4S Youth Services, which has been paid about $10 million per year to operate the lockup since 2007. G4S' contract expires next year.

Reached late Monday, G4S spokesman Monica Lewman-Garcia said the company was still reviewing the report and wasn't able to fully respond.

"We take these matters very seriously, and we are working with the Arkansas [Division] of Youth Services to ensure that all youth at the AJATC are receiving the services necessary for a successful transition to the community," Lewman-Garcia wrote in an email referring to an acronym for the Alexander lockup.

The report comes more than two months after the nonprofit group sent monitors into the lockup in response to a Democrat-Gazette article that reported assaults nearly doubled there last year.

In 2013, the lockup reported 327 assaults, a 98 percent increase from the 165 reported the previous year, according to internal Youth Services Division data. The lockup also was on pace to post similar assault numbers this year.

Internal data from G4S showed that through May 31, the facility had reported 135 assaults in 151 days, including 91 that involved "strikes, hits or punches." Of those 91 physical assaults, 54 were between youths and 37 involved youths striking staff members.

The newspaper has also reported that lockup employees had been accused of physically assaulting youths on three separate occasions this year, all of which resulted in the firing or resignation of the employees involved.

The Disability Rights Center's report is based on interviews with more than 50 youths, 17 site visits and a review of numerous facility documents.

In the report, the monitors noted that youths told them about more instances of physical abuse by staff members than had been formally reported. The report includes summaries of statements made by three youths about such instances.

One girl reported being slapped in the face by a staff member after she said she didn't want to move to another living area.

"The altercation began with the staff person striking her in the face open-handed, and the youth hitting back," the report said. The girl didn't report the incident because "it was her word against that of a staff member."

In another instance, a boy reported both verbal and physical abuse by staff, including name-calling and physical restraints that left him bruised on his face and arms. The boy didn't report any of it because he feared retaliation from staff if they found out he "snitched."

A third case involved a boy who had been originally committed to the Youth Services Division for three to five months for disorderly conduct when he was 13. Instead, he has now spent three years in state custody because he has made several threats to harm himself.

The report notes that staff believed the boy has "unraveled" and his behavior has gotten worse as a result of his lengthy stay.

"During interviews with DRC staff, he has stated that he is aware that his behavior is what is keeping him at AJATC, but no one is listening to his pleas for help," the report notes.

During his time at the facility, the boy reported that he had been abused by staff while in a restraint hold, slapped and hit in the face and had his head banged into walls, "all in areas where there are no cameras to record the incidents."

The boy's allegations were among those that Masseau said occurred in "dead zones," areas outside the view of surveillance cameras in hallways and around corners.

The assaults "are quite frequent and staff and the youth know where the dead zones are. If they get pulled in that direction ... who knows what can happen in a dead zone," Masseau said.

Masseau said that several youths said they hadn't gone forward to report the assaults because they feared retaliation.

In addition to allegations of violence, the monitors also found that the lockup isn't providing the necessary level of psychiatric care for the number of youths housed there.

When monitors first arrived in June, the facility contracted with one psychiatrist who visited the lockup once a week and saw 14-15 youths per day, the report noted.

Recently, G4S reported that the psychiatrist was now visiting twice a week and seeing seven to eight youths per day.

But Masseau said the change isn't enough to treat the vast majority of the children at the facility who require psychiatric care.

"That's a huge amount of kids who need treatment and need to see a psychiatrists, and if they can't see them on a regular basis, it's a problem," Masseau said.

The monitors also found:

• Youths weren't given the opportunity to give a statement if they were involved in an altercation with another youth or staff member.

• Youths felt that filing a grievance was a "waste of time" and reporting "only leads to retaliation and further abuse."

• Monitors found numerous inconsistencies in how the staff documented physical restraints and controlled observations, which is seclusion from the general population because of behavior.

• Many of the youths have been involved in a controlled observation or physical restraints over eight times during their stay, including two who had been in such situations at least 19 times.

• The lockup is using outdated deadbolts on several cells instead of electronic locks, an upgrade that the U.S. Justice Department recommended 10 years ago.

• Youths were only being allowed one 10-minute phone call a week when the facility's policies state that the youths should have unlimited calls to their parents or guardians, attorneys and others.

The report noted that some of the recommendations mirrored those made nearly a decade ago that still haven't been addressed.

"While the contractor is different, many of the problems and recommendations identified in 2006 remain the same," the monitors noted.

The report lays out 20 recommendations on how to improve the facility in categories such as health and safety, education, constitutional rights and mental health services.

The report also called on the state to study other states with "more progressive" juvenile justice programs and turn away from institutionalized settings such as Alexander in favor of programs that keep youths in their communities.

On Monday, Webb said that the Youth Services Division was working to address many of the report's findings, including the need for more psychiatric care and filling in "dead zones" in the facility's surveillance cameras.

Webb said the division has requested permission to hire three more internal monitors that will help provide more oversight of the Alexander facility.

But Webb said that the disability-rights group's recommendations for broader changes will take time.

"All of us agree that if we can place kids in the community, that's the best place for them, but there is a need for a facility like Alexander in terms of some harder-to-place kids and kids who need some very intensive residential treatment and services," Webb said. "You have to balance public safety with that."

"It's not something that can be fixed overnight. We can't just shut down the facility," she added.

Masseau acknowledged that structural changes in the juvenile justice system will take time and study, but he said that the Youth Services Division needs to address several recommendations immediately.

"If [G4S] employees are bribing these kids, then DYS needs to come in and do something about it," Masseau said.

Masseau said his monitors will continue to visit the Alexander lockup and release additional reports.

Metro on 08/19/2014

Upcoming Events