Daniels: Reports Of Juvenile Prison Abuse
Feds Investigate Conditions At Indianapolis Facility

POSTED: 4:08 pm EDT May 20, 2010


INDIANAPOLIS -- The governor on Thursday downplayed a scathing federal report calling on Indiana to address widespread abuses within its juvenile correction facilities.

A Jan. 29 letter and report from U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez to Gov. Mitch Daniels details troublesINDIANAPOLIS within the former Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility, including a (Mentally Ill Inmate left Dirty and Pulling Out Her Hair) and (Male Guards Having Sex With and Performing Strip Searches on Young Female Inmates),
6News' Joanna Massee reported.

The letter follows a civil rights investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2008 that documented( Inadequate Abuse Investigations), ( Excessive use of Force and Isolation, )inadequate mental health care and inadequate special education services. The investigation into allegations of abuse began in 2004.

Daniels initially declined to comment on the report, but when asked about the issue at a jobs announcement on Thursday, he told Massee the report was "hopelessly out of date."

" The problems there (the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility) -- which were very severe and obviously needed attention -- are many years old," Daniels said. "They're doing their job and tidying up what is really a six- or eight-year-old inquiry."

When the report was originally released, Daniels volunteered to make improvements at all the facilities and to provide reports resulting from a partnership with the Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force, an agency charged with monitoring the expected improvements.

A statement from the Indiana Department of Correction called it "a much different facility than its predecessor in Indianapolis," but a former employee told 6News that conditions for inmates worsened after the move.

("I do not think any child inside Madison Juvenile is safe," the former employee, who did not want to be identified, told Massee.")

6News was not allowed inside the Madison facility.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/23623424/detail.
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