ALEXANDER LOCKUP

Scrutiny ongoing at lockup for kids

State, monitors to work together

Officials with the state Division of Youth Services and a nonprofit disability rights group said Friday that they will work together to investigate allegations that staff members at the state's largest juvenile lockup rewarded youths with candy bars for punching, slapping or bothering other children.

The Disability Rights Center of Arkansas released a 19-page report last week that detailed the allegations and statements from youths who said that they had been assaulted by staff members in video surveillance "dead zones" at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander.

Monitors with the disability rights group have said they consider the allegations to be credible because they came from multiple youths housed in different areas of the lockup.

On Friday, spokesmen from the Disability Rights Center and the Youth Services Division said in interviews that they were committed to fully investigating the allegations and to working together to address other recommendations for improving the state's juvenile justice system that were included in the report.

But state officials and the monitors with the nonprofit still disagree on whether it's necessary for the Youth Services Division to know the names of the youths who made the abuse allegations.

The Youth Services Division has sought the names of the youths since the monitors took the allegations to Human Services Deputy Director Keesa Smith and Youth Services Division Director Tracy Steele on Aug. 12, the week before the group made its report public. A division spokesman has said the state wanted the names so it could launch a formal investigation.

Tom Masseau, the Disability Rights Center's executive director, has said he couldn't release the names because it would violate the youths' trust and possibly expose them to retaliation. The youths did not name any staff members when they reported the allegations because of that fear.

On Friday, Justin Nickels, spokesman for the disability rights group, said it still wouldn't be releasing the names to the state agency, but had agreed to provide more details on when the youths said the assaults occurred.

"They are interested in figuring [the youths' identities] on their end, but we can't give that information out," Nickels said.

Amy Webb, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said the Youth Services Division requested information in addition to the names, including whether the allegations involved a certain dormitory or shift or if the group's monitors had identified other "trends" that would aid in investigating the validity of the allegations.

"Specific to the allegation as it related to the bribing, DRC feels extremely uncomfortable about releasing those names because they fear there might be retaliation, so we're moving forward in trying to pursue that information in other ways," Webb said.

After the report was released, G4S Youth Services, the contractor that has been paid about $10 million per year to operate the lockup near Alexander, also called on the Disability Rights Center to turn over any evidence it had about abuse or maltreatment to the Arkansas State Police or the state Division of Children and Family Services.

A spokesman for the Florida-based contractor said the company has "zero tolerance" for abuse and would support criminal investigations of the allegations if any evidence that validated the acts was turned over.

In response, Masseau questioned whether the company had been thorough in reporting any suspected abuse when it occurred at the lockup and noted that his monitors reviewed incident reports detailing assaults and serious injuries at the facility that hadn't been reported to state authorities.

G4S staff members are required by state law to report maltreatment or abuse to the state child abuse hotline. The Disability Rights Center's staff members are not mandated reporters by law.

The hotline is the designated hub for child abuse allegations to be forwarded to investigators with the Crimes Against Children Division of the Arkansas State Police. The division's investigators are civilians, but they work closely with state and local law enforcement if they discover maltreatment that rises to the level of criminal activity.

State police spokesman Bill Sadler said that as of Friday afternoon the agency wasn't conducting a criminal investigation into assaults at the lockup. Sadler said he wasn't allowed to divulge whether the hotline had received any reports of allegations related to those detailed in the Disability Rights Center's report.

Webb has said that G4S has been "responsive" to the division's concerns about assaults at the facility and that the division hasn't found any indication that G4S staff members weren't following state law regarding reporting maltreatment or abuse.

"There's a maltreatment law, and there's also a mandated reporter law that says when people should report to the hotline, and that's what we expect G4S to follow," she said.

The allegations of assaults were discovered while monitors made 17 unannounced visits to the lockup, which houses about 100 of the state's most behaviorally troubled youths.

The Disability Rights Center has authority under federal law to investigate facilities that house people with disabilities such as the lockup near Alexander. The group has also been instrumental in uncovering problems at the facility over the past decade that have sparked changes.

The center sent its latest group of monitors into the facility after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in June that reported assaults at the lockup had nearly doubled last year. In 2013, the facility reported 327 assaults, a 98 percent increase from the 165 reported the year before.

The newspaper also reported that since the beginning of the year, staff members had been fired or resigned as a result of three instances in which employees were accused of assaulting youths, including an incident that occurred in mid-June.

In response to the spike in assaults becoming public, the Youth Services Division directed that G4S conduct a facilitywide review of the staff and youth culture at the facility. The company enlisted consultant Darryl Olson to conduct the review.

In his report released earlier this month, Olson found that staff members physically restrained youths in many situations that could have been avoided if the employees had used verbal calming techniques earlier in confrontations.

Olson based his finding on a review of 40-50 instances in which staff members used physical restraints or holds on youths during the months of April, May and June. In his report, Olson noted that he didn't find any instances in which the physical restraints resulted in serious injuries for either youths or staff members.

He also found that all of the 37 youths he interviewed said they felt safe at the lockup.

The disability rights group has questioned Olson's objectivity because he worked for more than 30 years in the Florida juvenile justice system, where G4S operates several juvenile treatment facilities that Olson is paid by the company to routinely review.

The Disability Rights Center's report, which was based on interviews with more than 50 youths, found that multiple youths said they had been assaulted by staff members and that they feared retaliation for reporting the altercations.

The report noted a girl who reported having been slapped by a staff member; a boy who reported being hit and slapped and having his head banged into walls; and another boy who reported both verbal and physical abuse by staff members, including name-calling and restraints that left bruises on his face and arms.

On Friday, Webb said the division asked the monitors to report any assaults they may witness while they continue to visit the lockup.

"We want to make sure our kids are safe, and if they're out there and they see something that our staff doesn't see, we want to make sure and act on it. And they said they would do that," she said.

Leaders in the Youth Services Division also agreed to meet monthly with the Disability Rights Center to discuss recommendations it made on how to improve the state's juvenile justice system in addition to reducing the number of assaults at the lockup near Alexander.

Some of those recommendations regarded improving mental health services at the lockup, which houses about 85 youths who are taking psychotropic medications.

The group also urged the division to review the amount of time it's holding some youths who have committed misdemeanor offenses and to strengthen its internal investigations unit. The division has said it has requested hiring three additional investigators.

On Friday, Nickels said the disability rights group was encouraged by the meeting.

"They seem to be committed to fixing a lot of the issues that we've discovered, which is an excellent thing," he said.

"We're going to continue to monitor and interview more youth and do everything that we've done so far to continue to get to the root of all these issues, and hopefully prevent them in the future," he said.

SundayMonday on 08/24/2014

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