A federally funded disability rights group will send monitors into Arkansas' largest youth lockup in response to a near doubling of assaults reported at the facility between 2012 and 2013.

The nonprofit Disability Rights Center of Arkansas has authority under federal law to enter and investigate facilities that house people with disabilities, including the state Division of Youth Services' lockup.

On Thursday, the center's executive director Tom Masseau said he was "alarmed" by the spike in assaults at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander.

The youth lockup reported 327 assaults in 2013, a 98 percent increase over 2012 when 165 assaults were reported. The number of assaults last year was the highest in at least five years.

Masseau said his decision to send in monitors came in response to an article published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that reported the assault figures.

"We need to get back into the facility and pull some records," Masseau said.

Youth Services Division officials said Thursday that they are open to having the disability center's staff visit the Alexander facility and that the state agency would cooperate fully with the review.

The Disability Rights Center's interest in the youth lockup came the same day that the contractor that operates the facility offered an explanation for the increase in assaults and as juvenile advocates, researchers and the office of Gov. Mike Beebe weighed in.

The newspaper obtained the assault figures from the Youth Services Division under the state Freedom of Information Act.

The lockup serves as the intake point for nearly all of the state's juvenile delinquents and houses about 100 children who are among the state's most violent and behaviorally troubled.

The assaults data were reported to the Youth Services Division by G4S Youth Services, the contractor that has been paid about $10 million per year to operate the lockup.

Assaults are classified by the agency as one person striking or being verbally aggressive toward another without retaliation by the victim. An assault can be youth against youth, youth against staff or staff against youth.

The severity of an assault can vary widely. A youth shoving another youth could be included in the assault figures as well as an altercation that caused serious bodily harm.

Obtaining reports

The Disability Rights Center was heavily involved in investigating the youth center during the mid- to late 2000s. The group exposed numerous shortcomings in the lockup's educational programs and put pressure on the facility to improve conditions for the youths housed there.

But the disability rights group hasn't regularly monitored the lockup for at least two years, Masseau said.

In light of the assaults spike, Masseau said he sees a need to "step up."

The group is given the power under two acts of Congress to enter facilities that house people with disabilities and investigate allegations of mistreatment, abuse or constitutional rights violations.

"We're not there to make sure that the curtains are hung right. We want to make sure that the kids are being treated with dignity and respect and that there's adequate programming."

Monitors' visits won't be announced, he added.

In the past, Masseau said, monitors have had trouble getting regular copies of incident reports at Alexander.

The newspaper also has asked under the state Freedom of Information Act for more detailed information about the type of assaults within the Alexander facility as well as incident reports with identifying information removed. But the Youth Services Division has denied those requests, citing confidentiality laws.

Masseau said the Youth Services Division could do more to be open with the public.

"I think that we should be able to get information on the level of assaults, how serious is it, how often are they occurring, and the public should know because this facility is funded through taxpayer dollars," Masseau said.

Amy Webb, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which oversees the Youth Services Division, said the agency will ensure that the center's monitors get "access to whatever they need to do their jobs."

"We're absolutely open to them coming in. They have previously been out at that facility a number of times over the years and DRC and DYS have the same goal in mind, which is keeping kids safe," she said. "We see ourselves on the same side."

Factors in play

On Thursday, a corporate spokesman for Florida-based G4S also said that the company welcomes the outside monitors.

"G4S places the utmost emphasis on the safety of the youth in our care and the staff who work in our programs. Violence in the program is not tolerated, and we work hard to ensure that the behavioral challenges of the youth in our care are addressed in a fair and accountable manner," said spokesman Monica Lewman-Garcia.

"There is no indication that the program is any less safe today than it was in 2012."

The company believes that the spike in assaults between 2012 and 2013 is largely due to a change in the definition of "assault," Lewman-Garcia said.

The definition used in 2012 and previous years was narrower, she said.

"The new definition is much broader, and includes situations that could potentially escalate to the old definition of assault, or even those as simple as a youth placing his hand on another youth's shoulder," she said.

Scott Tanner, ombudsman of the state's juvenile justice system, said the increase in assaults shows the need for the Youth Services Division to pay better attention to its own data.

He believes one of the main contributors to the increase is that the facility has become the landing place for children with diverse mental health needs.

"The kids that disrupt in other programs end up being placed there, so we have a hundred very high-need kids with varying age ranges and varying dispositions. So the challenge of being able to maintain behavior is a chronic challenge," Tanner said.

Tanner said he believes that the facility has the potential to provide "educational and therapeutic services" for the children in its care, but that the state needs to do a better job of assessing the needs of children and placing them in programs tailored to their mental and educational needs.

Pat Arthur, an independent consultant who has studied Arkansas' juvenile justice system for several years, said she believes the high number of assaults is an indicator that facilities like the one in Alexander should be phased out.

"It's the nature of large juvenile prisons that youth are subjected to high risk of assault or risk of self harm and that's what we see happening again at Alexander. The children aren't to blame, it's the adults who have the responsibility to keep even those type of institutions safe," she said. "Unfortunately that's very difficult to do."

Research around the country shows that juvenile delinquents are safer and respond better in programs closer to their homes with more intensive one-on-one treatment, Arthur said.

States such as New York, California, Louisiana and Missouri have made efforts to reduce their reliance on large facilities, Arthur said, and she believes Arkansas should as well.

"I continue to think that the facility should be closed," she said.

Paul Kelly, a senior policy analyst for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said he believes the state has a need for a maximum security type youth lockup, but only for a "very small" population of serious offenders.

The Alexander facility should reduce its bed space from the current capacity of 100 youths to about 40 children, he said.

"Across the country, these large institutional settings are dying because of their inefficiency and ineffectiveness to turn kids' lives around because they will not and cannot address the underlying causes for why they are there," he said.

State juvenile assessment data collected since 2008 show that the general population of children committed to state custody is posing a "lower and lower risk" of harm to the community, he said.

"It is simply not true that these youth are more violent than in years past," Kelly said.

Youth Services Division Director Tracy Steele said Wednesday that he believes the spike in assaults was caused by a combination of factors, including better reporting by facility managers.

He also said he believes that the Alexander lockup is handling more violent children now than in past years based on reports from G4S and Youth Services Division staff who spend the most time at the facility.

Steele said his comments about an increase in violent tendencies weren't referring to the general population of children going into the juvenile justice system but rather children who have been in state custody for years.

Steele said he supports many of the ideas and changes suggested by juvenile justice advocates, including continuing to reduce youth incarcerations.

Steele said he also believes that "the best place for kids to be restored is at home and in their local communities," but that efforts to move children out of restrictive residential environments should be gradual and balanced with a concern for public safety.

Steele said he also plans to give his agency more power to handle problems with contractors and is working to include more "teeth" in the next contract to operate the Alexander facility, which will be put out to bid next year.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor is confident in the Youth Services Division's ability to research and "address" the cause of the increase in assaults.

DeCample said the governor's office also has directed Human Services Department staff members to make sure "all the right steps were taken" in the handling of a lockup employee who was fired by G4S in April due to allegations of assaulting a youth.

The firing of the employee, Eddie Malvin, was disclosed by the Youth Services Division on Wednesday. The Youth Services Division has said Malvin was the only contract employee fired over abuse allegations since the beginning of the year.

A Section on 06/13/2014