A Pulaski County Circuit judge on Thursday denied a 17-year-old's request that he remain in the county juvenile detention center to continue receiving special education services that he wasn't receiving in the adult jail.
During a brief hearing, Circuit Judge Leon Johnson ruled that Vincent Shabazz can be transferred from the Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center to the Pulaski County jail, where he was housed for several months last year.
The judge's ruling came after a special education teacher from the Little Rock School District testified that the jail never allowed teachers to meet with Shabazz during his time at the adult lockup.
But she noted that the adult jail does have the capacity to allow teachers to meet with special education students and has allowed such access in other cases.
The dispute over where Shabazz should be jailed had raised questions earlier this month about what type of educational services are required to be provided to youths charged as adults and housed in adult jails.
Shabazz, who is charged as an adult and faces several felony charges, had argued that state law required him to be housed in a detention center that provides secondary education because he is under 18 and within the age range of mandatory school attendance.
Prosecutors had argued against Shabazz's motion, saying he should be held in the adult jail because he is charged as an adult.
Prosecutors also argued in a court filing that Shabazz's criminal case was not a proper venue to raise the question of whether the jail was providing adequate access to educational services. That question would be a matter for a civil lawsuit, they said.
Shabazz faces charges of aggravated robbery, robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and theft related to at least two robberies, including one in January 2014 at the Burns Park Tennis Center in North Little Rock.
Shabazz, who was 15 at the time, was arrested a few days after the January robbery, and he was housed in the juvenile detention center at first. But in February 2014, he was transported to the adult jail.
Shabazz was then held in his cell for 23 hours a day for the majority of his time at the adult jail until he was again transported to the juvenile detention center in June.
In a court filing, Shabazz accused the jail of keeping him and other youths in their cells for 23 hours a day, seven days a week for months as part of a routine practice, a contention that at least two other public defenders said had occurred in other cases.
Earlier this month, Pulaski County jail officials denied that lockdown was a routine practice in the jail's 29-bed F Unit where Shabazz and other youths charged as adults are housed separately from adult inmates.
Major Matt Briggs, the second-in-command at the jail, said Shabazz was locked down in his cell for the majority of his incarceration because of his aggressive and violent behavior.
"Each time he was taken out of segregation, he attacked staff members, other inmates, or threatened to harm himself and was placed back on segregation status," Briggs said in early August.
On Thursday, Janice Lehmann, lead teacher for alternative agencies with the Little Rock School District, testified that Shabazz's placement on lockdown kept him from meeting with a teacher as required under his individual education plan.
"He was on administrative segregation, and we were not allowed to see him. The jail would not let us see him," Lehmann said.
Lehmann said Shabazz's education plan -- known as an IEP -- was formulated in August 2014 because he qualifies to receive special education under federal law.
Under questioning from the judge, Lehmann said that the adult jail allowed other teens charged as adults to meet with teachers if the youths qualify for special education services. She said the teachers meet with the youths in the no-contact visitation area of the jail where they are separated by Plexiglas.
Lehman noted that the setting is much more restrictive than the classroom in the juvenile detention center.
"We can still provide services [in the adult jail], but it's not the same," she said.
Shabazz's attorney, public defender Dorcy Corbin, argued that federal law required that her client receive special education and that he would be better served by remaining in the juvenile detention center where he has been participating in class since June.
But deputy prosecutor Adam Childers said Lehmann's testimony showed that Shabazz could receive special education instruction in the adult jail as long as he behaved.
"After Mr. Shabazz has been charged as an adult, [the sheriff] has the right to keep him in an adult lockup, and he can get educated there," Childers said.
The judge sided with Childers without elaboration.
Metro on 08/28/2015