The Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections Is a Bloody Mess
It's not typically a headline-making department. The state's most violent juvenile offenders go to the adult system; most kids wind up at the ADJC after committing a series of petty crimes. In October 2008, only 126 of the 625 kids in custody were there for violent crimes.
The agency's mandate is to rehabilitate, not punish. These are, after all, children. Their records are kept secret and expunged once they turn 18.
You may not have known of it, but the U.S. Department of Justice is well aware of the ADJC. Twice now, the state agency has fallen under scrutiny and federal orders to improve services and ensure safety.
The 1987 civil rights lawsuit Johnson v. Upchurch ultimately led to federally mandated changes at the agency, which had famously kept one boy in solitary confinement for several weeks.
Conditions for kids behind bars in Arizona got better — for a while. Then they got worse.
In 2001, the Department of Justice began making inquiries into conditions at the ADJC, after a series of stories in New Times revealed concerns about the safety of both staff and kids, as well as potential civil rights violations. In 2002 and 2003, three boys in ADJC custody committed suicide. The DOJ ultimately investigated under CRIPA, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, confirming much of what New Times had originally reported.
Again, things got better, though internal critics have always wondered just how much. The Department of Justice was satisfied, however, and closed its case in 2007.
No one from the outside has paid much attention since. And even when they have, it's tough to figure out just how closely anyone's looking. This fall, the Arizona Auditor General released a report on suicide prevention at the ADJC. The report was largely glowing, leading the Arizona Republic, the state's newspaper of record, to hand out high-fives in a story headlined, "Arizona's Juvenile Jails Free of Suicides Since '03."
The story and the audit didn't mention how close some of the calls were, even though the report acknowledged reviewing agency documents from March to May 2009; presumably, those would have included several of the incidents mentioned above.
The audit also praised the department for improving staff/youth relations, while ignoring three recent criminal cases in which ADJC staff were sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to having sexual relationships with kids.
And perhaps auditors failed to interview the staff members New Times spoke with, all of whom presented grave concerns about conditions at the ADJC — while insisting they like their jobs and want to continue working with kids who desperately need them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The employees' concerns vary from person to person, with an overriding theme: This agency — charged with taking care of sometimes violent and mentally disturbed kids — is not very professional.
The ADJC employees warn that a public-records request will reveal only some of what's going on at the agency.
"All someone has to do is write an IR [incident report] and put 'confidential' on it," and it's kept secret, one guard says. (To the agency's credit, many of the records provided by the ADJC for this story are, in fact, quite damning.)
A tour of the facilities is pointless, too, another guard says — even for the federal investigators, who were treated to a whitewash, several of the employees say.
"Anytime anybody comes to do an inspection, we know months in advance," one comments. It's easy to make things look good.
Another, who has worked for the ADJC since the Upchurch case, sees a real change in the kids coming into the system today.
"The kids we have now are nothing like the kids we had in those days," he says. "The kids we had then were real criminals."
He adds, "I wish we had counselors for every single one of them, and then I wouldn't have a job . . . We have psych associates that are overly taxed. Usually at any given point and time we'll have three psych associates to deal with 100 kids."
As for the community-based care that the agency is pushing for, which results in early release, the employee says, "Those kids come right back."
Norman Davis, chief presiding judge for the juvenile division of the Maricopa County Superior Court, echoes this.
"The first year I thought I was saving everybody. The second year, all the kids came back," he says, laughing ruefully and adding that obviously this is an exaggeration.
As for the extent to which mental illness affects the behaviors of the kids he sentences, Davis says he's really not sure.
"The longer I go — mental illness, what does that mean, exactly?" he asks, rhetorically. "Things of the mind are very difficult to get ahold of.
One shared concern among those interviewed for this story is staffing numbers. The CRIPA investigators strongly suggested that in many cases, each housing unit needs to have two staff members on hand at all times — including at night. And yet that tends to be a time, staff say, when corners are cut.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kids Are Not Alright
The Department of Juvenile Corrections is supposed to watch -- and rehabilitate -- troubled teens. But no one's watching the department.?
Editor's note: The names of juveniles throughout these stories have been changed to protect their privacy. Although their criminal case files are public record, their corrections files are not.
Suicide at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections
From Brewer to Arpaio, No One's Listening to the Experts About How to Save Money or Protect Civil Rights and Public Safety When It Comes to Juvenile Corrections
Suicidal Tendencies: The Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections Is a Bloody Mess
December 17, 2009
Terri CapozziDavid GasparArizona Department of Juvenile CorrectionsPrisonsCriminal Sentencing and Punishment The boys in the Nova cottage at Adobe Mountain School had been locked in their cells for six days. They had not been allowed to go to school or to the cafeteria or to chapel. No weekly phone calls. They had not showered, or washed their clothes. Some had been without a mattress on their metal bed frames for weeks. Leftover food and garbage sat on the floors of their cells; some boys banged on the doors, demanding to use the bathroom. A streak of dried urine ran under the door of one cell. Inside there was more urine and feces on the floor.
Terri Capozzi followed a trail of blood, seeping into the hallway, to the door of the cell belonging to a boy named Roberto. She looked through the window.
"The room was in complete disarray," Capozzi, the youth rights ombudsman for the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections, would later write in a memo obtained by New Times. "Looking down on the floor, I saw the bottom half of a pint milk container set carefully in the middle of the blood-spattered floor. It appeared that the container was filled to the brim with blood.
" . . . As I stepped into the empty room, I noticed on the floor not far from the milk carton a wad of white gauze bound together. It was blood-soaked on one end. When I looked up at the walls, I realized that the container was a bucket, the gauze a rudimentary paintbrush and that [Roberto's] blood was the paint. The walls were filled with carefully drawn ornate designs, carefully rendered. I was awestruck by what occurred in this room."
Capozzi was told the mess had been made in the past 30 minutes, but her associate, Adobe Mountain youth rights specialist Brenda Lewis, confirmed it had been there for at least several hours. Roberto, a 15-year-old serving time for burglary, had been in and out of the infirmary for days, treated for self-inflicted cuts.
The Nova boys were locked down because they'd been misbehaving, and were supposed to be participating in a marathon group-counseling session. But just one brief session had been held the previous night, they told Lewis, when she visited them early on the afternoon of Day Six.
As Capozzi and Lewis left the cottage, the boys were allowed to go to dinner in the cafeteria for the first time in almost a week. Capozzi was speaking with Roberto -- he had never cut himself before coming to Adobe, she would write, but now was "clearly mentally compromised" and suicidal -- when Joe Taylor, the school's superintendent, approached. He called her into his office and ordered her off school property, angry that she'd crossed him by speaking with kids without his permission, undermining him and his staff.
The response: Taylor has since been promoted to ADJC assistant director, in charge of the agency's Safe Schools program.
As for Roberto, he was released from Adobe but returned in November, after he ran away from a residential treatment center. And he's still cutting himself .
The story of Roberto and what happened in the Nova cottage may be particularly chilling, but it is not the only example of abuse of children in the custody of the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Contrary to the agency's name, policymakers long ago gave ADJC the mandate to rehabilitate troubled kids, not punish them -- and certainly not abuse them.
And yet reports of mistreatment -- including verbal and sexual abuse, inappropriate use of restraints and solitary confinement, and violence against both juveniles and staff -- are common at the state's facilities, which typically house just under 1,000 Arizona youths at a time.
New Times has spent more than nine months investigating conditions within ADJC. Among the findings:
ADJC no longer follows the practices put into place by a federal court order in 1993 that were designed to ensure that proper conditions are maintained for youth in detention. ADJC violates the intent of the now-expired court order by:
• Routinely putting children in solitary confinement in specialized "separation units" for days or weeks, sometimes even months, without adequate education or other services.
• Locking children in their cells for days at a time, also in violation of a department policy that prohibits lock downs lasting longer than two hours at a time.
• Providing substandard mental health services. Undertrained staff counsel children, and there are waiting lists for beds in mental health cottages.
• Failing to provide enough staff. The staff-to-youth ratio should be at least one staff member for every eight youths.
In addition, ADJC violates its own internal policies and goes against acceptable national practices in the following areas:
• Staff members often use violence to control kids when it is not necessary. Sometimes staffers are disciplined, sometimes not.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2001-07-05/news/the-kids-are-not-alright/
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Prison_News_ Stories
Subject: [Prison_News_ Stories] Oklahoma State Workers Fired Over Allegations Of Rape
State Workers Fired Over Allegations
posted 5:56 pm Thu October 08, 2009 - Oklahoma City
from NewsChannel 8 - http://www.ktul. com/news/ stories/1009/ 666849.html
Two state workers have been fired over allegations of sexual misconduct with female state inmates who helped maintain the grounds at the Governor's Mansion.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections, Jerry Massie, says an investigation by the agency was turned over to the Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater's office on Friday. Massie says it includes allegations of sexual battery, forcible sodomy and rape.
Massie says the case involves two male employees of the Department of Central Services and at least three women who were serving state sentences at the Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City.
Paul Sund, a spokesman for Gov. Brad Henry, says the misconduct allegedly occurred at a storage shed that is not on the mansion's grounds.
---------------------------
January 04, 2009 (Detroit Free Press)
Sexual assaults on female inmates went unheeded
The Detroit Free Press is featuring a five-part special report on a multi-million dollar suit that has resulted from the sexual assault of female inmates by male guards in Michigan prisons. More than 500 women are suing and, thus far, stand to collect $50 million. "A prison is not supposed to turn you back out to society with more harm than when you came in," said Deborah LaBelle, an Ann Arbor civil rights lawyer who led a team that sued on behalf of the women. "No one, no one in this country, no one in a civilized society is sentenced to be raped and assaulted in prison
---------------------------------
records.
-----------------------------------------------------
The State | 02/26/2009 | Condemned man: SC deputies brutally beat him
Posted on Thu, Feb. 26, 2009
Condemned man: SC deputies brutally beat him
By MEG KINNARD
The Associated Press
A federal judge has removed a South Carolina sheriff from a lawsuit by a death row inmate suing over his treatment while in jail.
The judge ruled Thursday that attorneys for Chadrick Fulks failed to prove he was kept in inhumane conditions while at the jail run by Lexington County Sheriff James Metts.
The federal lawsuit against four of Metts' deputies will continue.
Fulks says he was beaten in 2003 while awaiting transfer to another jail.
Fulks testified Thursday via video teleconference from federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., that he thought the brutal beating was never going to end.
Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham face the death penalty for killing Alice Donovan during a two-week crime spree after escaping from a Kentucky jail.
© 2009 TheState.com and wire service sources.
http://www.thestate .com
------------------------
WASHINGTON – An estimated 3.2 percent of jail inmates (24,700) reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization in a survey mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics announced today. About 1.6 percent of all inmates (12,100) reported an incident involving another inmate, 2.0 percent (15,200) reported an incident involving jail staff, and 0.4 percent reported being victimized by both other inmates and staff.
The survey limited reporting by inmates to incidents occurring in the past 6 months or since their admission to the jail, if more recent. Sexual victimization is defined as all types of sexual activity, including inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts and abusive sexual contacts or unwanted touching. It also includes both willing and unwilling sexual activity with staff. An estimated 1.3 percent of inmates (10,400) said they had sex or sexual contact unwillingly with staff, and 1.1 percent (8,400) said they willingly had sexual contact with staff.
The survey was conducted in 282 randomly selected local jails between April and December 2007, with a sample of 40,419 inmates. Eighteen jail facilities had an overall sexual victimization rate of at least twice the national average of 3.2 percent, and 18 facilities had no reports of sexual victimization from inmates.
The Torrance County Detention Facility (New Mexico) recorded the highest overall rate of sexual victimization (13.4 percent). When sexual victimization excluded allegations of touching only, the Torrance County Detention Facility remained the highest with 8.9 percent, followed by the Brevard County Detention Center in Florida (7.8 percent), the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in New Mexico (6.7 percent), and the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail (5.8 percent).
Overall, 0.6 percent of all jail inmates reported an injury related to sexual victimization. Among all victims, 16 percent reported minor injuries (such as bruises, cuts, or scratches), 8 percent reported being knocked unconscious, 6 percent reported anal or rectal tearing, 6 percent internal injuries.
ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 9:00 A.M. EDT Bureau of Justice Statistics
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008 Contact: Sheila Jerusalem: 202-616-3227
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs After hours: 202-598-3570
State Workers Fired Over Allegations
posted 5:56 pm Thu October 08, 2009 - Oklahoma City
from NewsChannel 8 - http://www.ktul. com/news/ stories/1009/ 666849.html
Two state workers have been fired over allegations of sexual misconduct with female state inmates who helped maintain the grounds at the Governor's Mansion.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections, Jerry Massie, says an investigation by the agency was turned over to the Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater's office on Friday. Massie says it includes allegations of sexual battery, forcible sodomy and rape.
Massie says the case involves two male employees of the Department of Central Services and at least three women who were serving state sentences at the Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City.
Paul Sund, a spokesman for Gov. Brad Henry, says the misconduct allegedly occurred at a storage shed that is not on the mansion's grounds.
---------------------------
January 04, 2009 (Detroit Free Press)
Sexual assaults on female inmates went unheeded
The Detroit Free Press is featuring a five-part special report on a multi-million dollar suit that has resulted from the sexual assault of female inmates by male guards in Michigan prisons. More than 500 women are suing and, thus far, stand to collect $50 million. "A prison is not supposed to turn you back out to society with more harm than when you came in," said Deborah LaBelle, an Ann Arbor civil rights lawyer who led a team that sued on behalf of the women. "No one, no one in this country, no one in a civilized society is sentenced to be raped and assaulted in prison
---------------------------------
records.
-----------------------------------------------------
The State | 02/26/2009 | Condemned man: SC deputies brutally beat him
Posted on Thu, Feb. 26, 2009
Condemned man: SC deputies brutally beat him
By MEG KINNARD
The Associated Press
A federal judge has removed a South Carolina sheriff from a lawsuit by a death row inmate suing over his treatment while in jail.
The judge ruled Thursday that attorneys for Chadrick Fulks failed to prove he was kept in inhumane conditions while at the jail run by Lexington County Sheriff James Metts.
The federal lawsuit against four of Metts' deputies will continue.
Fulks says he was beaten in 2003 while awaiting transfer to another jail.
Fulks testified Thursday via video teleconference from federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., that he thought the brutal beating was never going to end.
Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham face the death penalty for killing Alice Donovan during a two-week crime spree after escaping from a Kentucky jail.
© 2009 TheState.com and wire service sources.
http://www.thestate .com
------------------------
WASHINGTON – An estimated 3.2 percent of jail inmates (24,700) reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization in a survey mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics announced today. About 1.6 percent of all inmates (12,100) reported an incident involving another inmate, 2.0 percent (15,200) reported an incident involving jail staff, and 0.4 percent reported being victimized by both other inmates and staff.
The survey limited reporting by inmates to incidents occurring in the past 6 months or since their admission to the jail, if more recent. Sexual victimization is defined as all types of sexual activity, including inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts and abusive sexual contacts or unwanted touching. It also includes both willing and unwilling sexual activity with staff. An estimated 1.3 percent of inmates (10,400) said they had sex or sexual contact unwillingly with staff, and 1.1 percent (8,400) said they willingly had sexual contact with staff.
The survey was conducted in 282 randomly selected local jails between April and December 2007, with a sample of 40,419 inmates. Eighteen jail facilities had an overall sexual victimization rate of at least twice the national average of 3.2 percent, and 18 facilities had no reports of sexual victimization from inmates.
The Torrance County Detention Facility (New Mexico) recorded the highest overall rate of sexual victimization (13.4 percent). When sexual victimization excluded allegations of touching only, the Torrance County Detention Facility remained the highest with 8.9 percent, followed by the Brevard County Detention Center in Florida (7.8 percent), the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in New Mexico (6.7 percent), and the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail (5.8 percent).
Overall, 0.6 percent of all jail inmates reported an injury related to sexual victimization. Among all victims, 16 percent reported minor injuries (such as bruises, cuts, or scratches), 8 percent reported being knocked unconscious, 6 percent reported anal or rectal tearing, 6 percent internal injuries.
ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 9:00 A.M. EDT Bureau of Justice Statistics
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008 Contact: Sheila Jerusalem: 202-616-3227
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs After hours: 202-598-3570
Monday, January 17, 2011
Children Forced Into Seclusion Rooms
Children forced into cell-like school seclusion rooms - CNN -
>EDMOND, Okla. -- The Edmond School District is showing Eyewitness News 5 camera crews the seclusion rooms in schools that have become the center of a lawsuit.
The parents of Noah Ashford, 11, and their attorney said Noah was locked in one of the rooms and abused"This room is a small closet basically that they've turned into a form of punishment," said attorney Angela Smith.
The family said that Noah, a special-needs student, attended Centennial and Orvis Risner elementary schools in Edmond and was locked inside seclusion rooms in both.
(This is just a regular classroom," said Randy Decker of the Edmond School District. "Students with different needs would be in here.")
He said that special-needs students require special care. He said that's why special-needs classrooms have two areas where children can calm down.
"(One) is just kind of a seclusion or isolation area. It's not in a different room," Decker said. "As you can tell, it's blocked off a little bit. They can go in and sit down and do their work there."
(Ashford's family said Noah was mistreated and locked in one of the seclusion rooms for an extended period of time.)
(Decker said the room is automatically unlocked and a student could push the door open from the inside. He said that if a child seems violent or continues to act out, a teacher can push a red button that will keep the door locked as long as the teacher's hand is there.)
He said that the district sees the rooms as a good way to maintain a safe classroom environment for all the students and the rooms are allowed under the law. Decker said every time a student is placed in one of the rooms, the teacher has to fill out a form to document it.
Decker was not able to answer whether parents of special-needs students find out about the rooms when their child enrolls.
www.publicbroadcasting.net/.../State.School.Board.Bans.Seclusion.Rooms - You Can View The U-Tube At http://www.koco.com/r/24102603/detail.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wisconsin.
By Chelsea Lawliss
Monday, April 12, 2010
In 2006, a 7-year-old girl was fatally injured at Rice Lake Day Treatment Clinic in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. A staff member held her in a prone position for an extended period of time after being put into a “cool down” room for refusing to stop blowing bubbles in her milk. A person several times her size held her facedown on the floor as a consequence for blowing bubbles. A medical examiner determined that she died from “complications due to chest compression asphyxiation.”
This is an extreme case of the misuse of seclusion rooms and restraints, but it is one that is not uncommon. This horrific story is only one of many that I came across when doing research about the debate about the use of seclusion rooms and restraints in an education setting. Each story was more awful than the one before it. Many children, especially those with disabilities, are being subjected to physically and emotionally damaging treatments because some teachers are not equipped with the necessary training and tools in which to establish the best learning environment for all of their students.
After reading Hannah Shtein’s March 12 column, “Address growing special ed needs” and Geoff Jara-Almonte’s March 16 column, “Student seclusion sometimes necessary,” I felt compelled to offer another viewpoint — that of a professional.
Professor Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Teacher Education and a distinguished scholar of special education, made her opinions clear at the onset of our interview: seclusion rooms, in the way they are currently being used, are wrong. This is not a statement based on biased opinions, but rather founded on her research and education on the causes and effects of punishment.
Nowhere in The Cap Times’ March 11 article, “Should schools use seclusion rooms, restraints?” was there mention of what the proper use of a seclusion room is. The focus, instead, was placed on “educators using these methods only as a last resort to keep children and staff safe.” According to professor Hanley-Maxwell, this focus is misdirected.
While the use of seclusion rooms is intended to keep students and others safe, the focus of this form of punishment should be more centered on how to modify a certain behavior and then reinforce subsequent positive behavior.
An important concept to understand is the relationship between punishment and reinforcement. According to LDonLine, the world’s leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD, “punishments are consequences that weaken behavior and reinforcers are consequences that strengthen behavior.” For behavior to be managed with consequences, there is a specific process that needs to be followed every time.
The problem must be defined in a way that is understood by the child. There needs to be a strategy designed to change the behavior and then an effective reinforcer needs to be identified and applied consistently to change the behavior.
*The reports of the misuse of seclusion rooms across the country are blatant proof of the lack of understanding of this process. To be clear, punishment that is used in an aggressive, cruel manner or overused will most likely provoke unexpected behavior that can be seen as emotional, destructive or just “another problem” to be dealt with.
Hanley-Maxwell said, “Without a positive incentive and environment to come back to, time spent in a seclusion room will be more detrimental than positive to a child’s emotional and physical well-being.”
http://badgerherald.com/oped/2010/04/12/seclusion_rooms_over.php
--------------------
NOTE>Mar 11, 2010 ... About two-thirds of Madison's public schools now use seclusion rooms; most also have teams of staff trained to use physical force to hustle ...
host.madison.com/.../article_1b3c4886-2bc8-11df-bd32-001cc4c03286.html -
-----------------------------
>EDMOND, Okla. -- The Edmond School District is showing Eyewitness News 5 camera crews the seclusion rooms in schools that have become the center of a lawsuit.
The parents of Noah Ashford, 11, and their attorney said Noah was locked in one of the rooms and abused"This room is a small closet basically that they've turned into a form of punishment," said attorney Angela Smith.
The family said that Noah, a special-needs student, attended Centennial and Orvis Risner elementary schools in Edmond and was locked inside seclusion rooms in both.
(This is just a regular classroom," said Randy Decker of the Edmond School District. "Students with different needs would be in here.")
He said that special-needs students require special care. He said that's why special-needs classrooms have two areas where children can calm down.
"(One) is just kind of a seclusion or isolation area. It's not in a different room," Decker said. "As you can tell, it's blocked off a little bit. They can go in and sit down and do their work there."
(Ashford's family said Noah was mistreated and locked in one of the seclusion rooms for an extended period of time.)
(Decker said the room is automatically unlocked and a student could push the door open from the inside. He said that if a child seems violent or continues to act out, a teacher can push a red button that will keep the door locked as long as the teacher's hand is there.)
He said that the district sees the rooms as a good way to maintain a safe classroom environment for all the students and the rooms are allowed under the law. Decker said every time a student is placed in one of the rooms, the teacher has to fill out a form to document it.
Decker was not able to answer whether parents of special-needs students find out about the rooms when their child enrolls.
www.publicbroadcasting.net/.../State.School.Board.Bans.Seclusion.Rooms - You Can View The U-Tube At http://www.koco.com/r/24102603/detail.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wisconsin.
By Chelsea Lawliss
Monday, April 12, 2010
In 2006, a 7-year-old girl was fatally injured at Rice Lake Day Treatment Clinic in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. A staff member held her in a prone position for an extended period of time after being put into a “cool down” room for refusing to stop blowing bubbles in her milk. A person several times her size held her facedown on the floor as a consequence for blowing bubbles. A medical examiner determined that she died from “complications due to chest compression asphyxiation.”
This is an extreme case of the misuse of seclusion rooms and restraints, but it is one that is not uncommon. This horrific story is only one of many that I came across when doing research about the debate about the use of seclusion rooms and restraints in an education setting. Each story was more awful than the one before it. Many children, especially those with disabilities, are being subjected to physically and emotionally damaging treatments because some teachers are not equipped with the necessary training and tools in which to establish the best learning environment for all of their students.
After reading Hannah Shtein’s March 12 column, “Address growing special ed needs” and Geoff Jara-Almonte’s March 16 column, “Student seclusion sometimes necessary,” I felt compelled to offer another viewpoint — that of a professional.
Professor Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Teacher Education and a distinguished scholar of special education, made her opinions clear at the onset of our interview: seclusion rooms, in the way they are currently being used, are wrong. This is not a statement based on biased opinions, but rather founded on her research and education on the causes and effects of punishment.
Nowhere in The Cap Times’ March 11 article, “Should schools use seclusion rooms, restraints?” was there mention of what the proper use of a seclusion room is. The focus, instead, was placed on “educators using these methods only as a last resort to keep children and staff safe.” According to professor Hanley-Maxwell, this focus is misdirected.
While the use of seclusion rooms is intended to keep students and others safe, the focus of this form of punishment should be more centered on how to modify a certain behavior and then reinforce subsequent positive behavior.
An important concept to understand is the relationship between punishment and reinforcement. According to LDonLine, the world’s leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD, “punishments are consequences that weaken behavior and reinforcers are consequences that strengthen behavior.” For behavior to be managed with consequences, there is a specific process that needs to be followed every time.
The problem must be defined in a way that is understood by the child. There needs to be a strategy designed to change the behavior and then an effective reinforcer needs to be identified and applied consistently to change the behavior.
*The reports of the misuse of seclusion rooms across the country are blatant proof of the lack of understanding of this process. To be clear, punishment that is used in an aggressive, cruel manner or overused will most likely provoke unexpected behavior that can be seen as emotional, destructive or just “another problem” to be dealt with.
Hanley-Maxwell said, “Without a positive incentive and environment to come back to, time spent in a seclusion room will be more detrimental than positive to a child’s emotional and physical well-being.”
http://badgerherald.com/oped/2010/04/12/seclusion_rooms_over.php
--------------------
NOTE>Mar 11, 2010 ... About two-thirds of Madison's public schools now use seclusion rooms; most also have teams of staff trained to use physical force to hustle ...
host.madison.com/.../article_1b3c4886-2bc8-11df-bd32-001cc4c03286.html -
-----------------------------
Jonathan King was 13 when he hanged himself inside a “seclusion room”
Dec 17, 2008 Jonathan King was 13 when he hanged himself inside a “seclusion room” at a Gainesville school for special needs children in 2004.
The unfurnished, 8-foot-by-8-foot room at the Alpine Psychoeducational Program was used for dealing with unruly children. The Kings say they never saw the room until his death and claim school officials kept them in the dark about its being used.
articles.cnn.com/.../seclusion.rooms_1_seclusion-autistic-children-special-education?_.
--------------------------------
Children Put In Seclusion Rooms (Locked From The Out Side & The Window Covered With Paper)
A report published earlier last year by the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) provided
additional examples, including one in which a 7-year-old Wisconsin girl, who was diagnosed with an
emotional disturbance and ADHD, died of suffocation after several adult staff pinned her to the
floor in a “prone restraint” because she was blowing bubbles in her milk.
A handful of earlier accounts also exposed the widespread use in schools of “seclusion rooms” or
“time-out rooms”–basically, solitary confinement cells for difficult-to-control children. Mary Hallowell
wrote about one such case in her 2009 book Forgotten Rooms. According to an article the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution:
Education researcher Mary Hollowell spent months chronicling an alternative high school in rural
Georgia before she discovered the awful secret that continues to haunt her today. Walking with the
principal down a hall, Hollowell heard a loud pounding. She followed the principal into a room and
then through a connecting doorway that led to a solitary confinement cell double bolted from the
outside.
“The cell was dark inside and had a small, square window,” she said. “It was the kind of set-up you
saw in a mental institution, not a school.” Inside the cell was a boy Hollowell recognized; she had
tutored him in reading and even had artwork from him. “I felt like I had been punched in the stomach
when I realized what I was seeing,” she says. “The principal’s comment to me was that most people
didn’t know this room was there.”
*As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported: “Seclusion rooms are allowed in Georgia public
schools provided they are big enough for children to lie down, have good visibility and have locks
that spring open in case of an emergency such as a fire. In 2004, Jonathan King, 13, hanged himself in
one such room, a stark, 8-foot-by-8-foot ‘timeout’ room in a Gainesville public school.” Jonathan was
also a special ed student, who had ADHD and depression. He had talked about suicide to the
school psychologist, but she concluded it was “an escape or attention-getting technique,” according
to the Gainesville Times. A civil rights lawsuit brought by his parents was thrown out of federal court.
These are the sorts of abuses that H.R. 4247 seeks to address. And the pressing need for federal
legislation is clear from the GAO report: ”GAO found no federal laws restricting the use of
seclusion and restraints in public and private schools and widely divergent laws at the state level,”
it said. In addition, “GAO could not find a single Web site, federal agency, or other entity that
collects information on the use of these methods or the extent of their alleged abuse.”
Yet 153 members of Congress chose to vote against a law that would expose and limit what can in
some cases only be described as the torture of schoolchildren.
Perhaps not so shocking after all: In a country that condones torture not only in its military detention
centers, but in its state and federal prisons, immigration jails, and juvenile detention centers, it was
only a matter of time before it trickled down, even into our schools.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
School Seclusion Rooms Outrage Parents | NBC PhiladelphiaJul 28, 2009 ... Emotions ran high after austic children were placed in seclusion rooms at a West Chester school. Now parents want answers as to why ...
www.nbcphiladelphia.com/.../School_Seclusion_Rooms_Outrage_Parents_Philadelphia.html -
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(WABE: State School Board Bans Seclusion Rooms (2010-07-09)Jul 9, 2010 ... ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - The Georgia School Board has banned the use of "seclusion rooms" for students with behavior problems. )...
The unfurnished, 8-foot-by-8-foot room at the Alpine Psychoeducational Program was used for dealing with unruly children. The Kings say they never saw the room until his death and claim school officials kept them in the dark about its being used.
articles.cnn.com/.../seclusion.rooms_1_seclusion-autistic-children-special-education?_.
--------------------------------
Children Put In Seclusion Rooms (Locked From The Out Side & The Window Covered With Paper)
A report published earlier last year by the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) provided
additional examples, including one in which a 7-year-old Wisconsin girl, who was diagnosed with an
emotional disturbance and ADHD, died of suffocation after several adult staff pinned her to the
floor in a “prone restraint” because she was blowing bubbles in her milk.
A handful of earlier accounts also exposed the widespread use in schools of “seclusion rooms” or
“time-out rooms”–basically, solitary confinement cells for difficult-to-control children. Mary Hallowell
wrote about one such case in her 2009 book Forgotten Rooms. According to an article the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution:
Education researcher Mary Hollowell spent months chronicling an alternative high school in rural
Georgia before she discovered the awful secret that continues to haunt her today. Walking with the
principal down a hall, Hollowell heard a loud pounding. She followed the principal into a room and
then through a connecting doorway that led to a solitary confinement cell double bolted from the
outside.
“The cell was dark inside and had a small, square window,” she said. “It was the kind of set-up you
saw in a mental institution, not a school.” Inside the cell was a boy Hollowell recognized; she had
tutored him in reading and even had artwork from him. “I felt like I had been punched in the stomach
when I realized what I was seeing,” she says. “The principal’s comment to me was that most people
didn’t know this room was there.”
*As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported: “Seclusion rooms are allowed in Georgia public
schools provided they are big enough for children to lie down, have good visibility and have locks
that spring open in case of an emergency such as a fire. In 2004, Jonathan King, 13, hanged himself in
one such room, a stark, 8-foot-by-8-foot ‘timeout’ room in a Gainesville public school.” Jonathan was
also a special ed student, who had ADHD and depression. He had talked about suicide to the
school psychologist, but she concluded it was “an escape or attention-getting technique,” according
to the Gainesville Times. A civil rights lawsuit brought by his parents was thrown out of federal court.
These are the sorts of abuses that H.R. 4247 seeks to address. And the pressing need for federal
legislation is clear from the GAO report: ”GAO found no federal laws restricting the use of
seclusion and restraints in public and private schools and widely divergent laws at the state level,”
it said. In addition, “GAO could not find a single Web site, federal agency, or other entity that
collects information on the use of these methods or the extent of their alleged abuse.”
Yet 153 members of Congress chose to vote against a law that would expose and limit what can in
some cases only be described as the torture of schoolchildren.
Perhaps not so shocking after all: In a country that condones torture not only in its military detention
centers, but in its state and federal prisons, immigration jails, and juvenile detention centers, it was
only a matter of time before it trickled down, even into our schools.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
School Seclusion Rooms Outrage Parents | NBC PhiladelphiaJul 28, 2009 ... Emotions ran high after austic children were placed in seclusion rooms at a West Chester school. Now parents want answers as to why ...
www.nbcphiladelphia.com/.../School_Seclusion_Rooms_Outrage_Parents_Philadelphia.html -
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(WABE: State School Board Bans Seclusion Rooms (2010-07-09)Jul 9, 2010 ... ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - The Georgia School Board has banned the use of "seclusion rooms" for students with behavior problems. )...
Kids Dieing FRom Abuse
Children Abused
A report published earlier last year by the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) provided
additional examples, including one in which a 7-year-old Wisconsin girl, who was diagnosed with an
emotional disturbance and ADHD, died of suffocation after several adult staff pinned her to the
floor in a “prone restraint” because she was blowing bubbles in her milk.
A handful of earlier accounts also exposed the widespread use in schools of “seclusion rooms” or
“time-out rooms”–basically, solitary confinement cells for difficult-to-control children. Mary Hallowell
wrote about one such case in her 2009 book Forgotten Rooms. According to an article the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution:
Education researcher Mary Hollowell spent months chronicling an alternative high school in rural
Georgia before she discovered the awful secret that continues to haunt her today. Walking with the
principal down a hall, Hollowell heard a loud pounding. She followed the principal into a room and
then through a connecting doorway that led to a solitary confinement cell double bolted from the
outside.
“The cell was dark inside and had a small, square window,” she said. “It was the kind of set-up you
saw in a mental institution, not a school.” Inside the cell was a boy Hollowell recognized; she had
tutored him in reading and even had artwork from him. “I felt like I had been punched in the stomach
when I realized what I was seeing,” she says. “The principal’s comment to me was that most people
didn’t know this room was there.”
*As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported: “Seclusion rooms are allowed in Georgia public
schools provided they are big enough for children to lie down, have good visibility and have locks
that spring open in case of an emergency such as a fire. In 2004, Jonathan King, 13, hanged himself in
one such room, a stark, 8-foot-by-8-foot ‘timeout’ room in a Gainesville public school.” Jonathan was
also a special ed student, who had ADHD and depression. He had talked about suicide to the
school psychologist, but she concluded it was “an escape or attention-getting technique,” according
to the Gainesville Times. A civil rights lawsuit brought by his parents was thrown out of federal court.
These are the sorts of abuses that H.R. 4247 seeks to address. And the pressing need for federal
legislation is clear from the GAO report: ”GAO found no federal laws restricting the use of
seclusion and restraints in public and private schools and widely divergent laws at the state level,”
it said. In addition, “GAO could not find a single Web site, federal agency, or other entity that
collects information on the use of these methods or the extent of their alleged abuse.”
Yet 153 members of Congress chose to vote against a law that would expose and limit what can in
some cases only be described as the torture of schoolchildren.
Perhaps not so shocking after all: In a country that condones torture not only in its military detention
centers, but in its state and federal prisons, immigration jails, and juvenile detention centers, it was
only a matter of time before it trickled down, even into our schools.
A report published earlier last year by the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) provided
additional examples, including one in which a 7-year-old Wisconsin girl, who was diagnosed with an
emotional disturbance and ADHD, died of suffocation after several adult staff pinned her to the
floor in a “prone restraint” because she was blowing bubbles in her milk.
A handful of earlier accounts also exposed the widespread use in schools of “seclusion rooms” or
“time-out rooms”–basically, solitary confinement cells for difficult-to-control children. Mary Hallowell
wrote about one such case in her 2009 book Forgotten Rooms. According to an article the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution:
Education researcher Mary Hollowell spent months chronicling an alternative high school in rural
Georgia before she discovered the awful secret that continues to haunt her today. Walking with the
principal down a hall, Hollowell heard a loud pounding. She followed the principal into a room and
then through a connecting doorway that led to a solitary confinement cell double bolted from the
outside.
“The cell was dark inside and had a small, square window,” she said. “It was the kind of set-up you
saw in a mental institution, not a school.” Inside the cell was a boy Hollowell recognized; she had
tutored him in reading and even had artwork from him. “I felt like I had been punched in the stomach
when I realized what I was seeing,” she says. “The principal’s comment to me was that most people
didn’t know this room was there.”
*As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported: “Seclusion rooms are allowed in Georgia public
schools provided they are big enough for children to lie down, have good visibility and have locks
that spring open in case of an emergency such as a fire. In 2004, Jonathan King, 13, hanged himself in
one such room, a stark, 8-foot-by-8-foot ‘timeout’ room in a Gainesville public school.” Jonathan was
also a special ed student, who had ADHD and depression. He had talked about suicide to the
school psychologist, but she concluded it was “an escape or attention-getting technique,” according
to the Gainesville Times. A civil rights lawsuit brought by his parents was thrown out of federal court.
These are the sorts of abuses that H.R. 4247 seeks to address. And the pressing need for federal
legislation is clear from the GAO report: ”GAO found no federal laws restricting the use of
seclusion and restraints in public and private schools and widely divergent laws at the state level,”
it said. In addition, “GAO could not find a single Web site, federal agency, or other entity that
collects information on the use of these methods or the extent of their alleged abuse.”
Yet 153 members of Congress chose to vote against a law that would expose and limit what can in
some cases only be described as the torture of schoolchildren.
Perhaps not so shocking after all: In a country that condones torture not only in its military detention
centers, but in its state and federal prisons, immigration jails, and juvenile detention centers, it was
only a matter of time before it trickled down, even into our schools.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Texas Inmate's Death Prompts Investigation
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Texas_Inmates_Death_Prompts_Investigation_Firings.html
Texas Inmate's Death Prompts Investigation, Firings
Five county jailers have been fired in the wake of an investigation into an inmate’s death.
LONGVIEW (January 4, 2011)—The unexplained death of a Gregg County Jail inmate on Dec. 29 led to the termination of five jailers and brought on an intensive investigation.
Amy Lynn Cowling was arrested on outstanding misdemeanor warrants on Christmas Eve and later was found unresponsive in her cell on Dec. 29.
Cowling was taken to a Longview hospital where she was pronounced dead of an unknown cause.
The Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Longview News-Journal report
that officials say one of the fired jailers, Tomeka Cross, 34, has been charged with tampering with a government document for falsifying a jail log.
Cross so far has not commented on the accusations.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has also found the jail
in noncompliance in past inspections.
Gregg County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Claxton said in a statement
that the cause of death has not been determined for Cowling.
Texas Inmate's Death Prompts Investigation, Firings
Five county jailers have been fired in the wake of an investigation into an inmate’s death.
LONGVIEW (January 4, 2011)—The unexplained death of a Gregg County Jail inmate on Dec. 29 led to the termination of five jailers and brought on an intensive investigation.
Amy Lynn Cowling was arrested on outstanding misdemeanor warrants on Christmas Eve and later was found unresponsive in her cell on Dec. 29.
Cowling was taken to a Longview hospital where she was pronounced dead of an unknown cause.
The Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Longview News-Journal report
that officials say one of the fired jailers, Tomeka Cross, 34, has been charged with tampering with a government document for falsifying a jail log.
Cross so far has not commented on the accusations.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has also found the jail
in noncompliance in past inspections.
Gregg County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Claxton said in a statement
that the cause of death has not been determined for Cowling.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Alleged corruption at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201011230630/OPINION/11230302
The fallout from a federal lawsuit and a U.S. Justice Department probe of a Mississippi lockup for youths should come swiftly in the form of legislative hearings, but it remains to be seen if any action will be taken.
It's not as if state officials don't have a sort of roadmap for how to address the alleged corruption at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. The allegations come seven years after the U.S. Justice Department sued the state over its treatment of teen offenders housed at training schools.
The state eventually acknowledged wrongdoing in that earlier case and entered into a consent decree to make changes at Oakley Training School and Columbia Training School. Those changes resulted in Columbia's closure, and a reduced inmate population at Oakley, which now only houses the most violent offenders.
It could be argued the claims against Walnut Grove are particularly disturbing because some legislators had held it up as a model for how youth detention centers should be run. Opened in 2001, the facility was to offer inmates, aged 13 to 22, general education development, brick masonry, adult basic education and job skills training. The lawsuit filed last week by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union and Rob McDuff, a Jackson attorney, contends most of the 1,200 inmates at the lockup aren't even getting basic education.
The 376,000-square-foot facility in Leake County is overseen by the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, a group appointed by the town. The authority has a contract with the state to house the inmates. The authority then contracts with GEO Group, Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based private prison company, to operate the prison. Both the authority and GEO Group are named as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps and state Superintendent of Education Tom Burnham. The lawsuit centers on allegations of inmate abuse fueled by staff shortages and lax oversight. The same kind of environment was described in the training school probe.
House Juvenile Justice Committee Chairman Earle Banks, D-Jackson, said he wants to hold hearings on the allegations as soon as possible.
Banks said he wants to hear from parents of inmates, the operators of the facility, former inmates and former staff. But he said he already has some ideas for proposals geared toward rectifying the situation. For example, Banks wants to strengthen state laws pertaining to the notification of parents when an inmate has been hurt at a corrections facility. During a news conference in Jackson last week, one inmate's father said he didn't know the location of his son for two weeks after the youth was severely attacked.
Senate Judiciary B Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, D-Oxford, said he's also concerned about the allegations raised in the lawsuit. "Certainly, these allegations need to be investigated, which will occur during the course of the lawsuit," Tollison said. "If it is determined that the Legislature needs to make changes regarding the operation of Walnut Grove, then we should do so."
While other lawmakers may want to wait to see how the case unfolds - through the courts and the federal probe - Banks wants to move forward on legislation.
"Whatever the Justice Department does is appreciated, but I am a state lawmaker dealing with state issues in Mississippi," said Banks. "Every day it goes without being handled, that means more kids have to go with this type of alleged treatment."
Shelia Byrd covers Mississippi politics and government for the Associated Press bureau in Jackson.
The fallout from a federal lawsuit and a U.S. Justice Department probe of a Mississippi lockup for youths should come swiftly in the form of legislative hearings, but it remains to be seen if any action will be taken.
It's not as if state officials don't have a sort of roadmap for how to address the alleged corruption at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. The allegations come seven years after the U.S. Justice Department sued the state over its treatment of teen offenders housed at training schools.
The state eventually acknowledged wrongdoing in that earlier case and entered into a consent decree to make changes at Oakley Training School and Columbia Training School. Those changes resulted in Columbia's closure, and a reduced inmate population at Oakley, which now only houses the most violent offenders.
It could be argued the claims against Walnut Grove are particularly disturbing because some legislators had held it up as a model for how youth detention centers should be run. Opened in 2001, the facility was to offer inmates, aged 13 to 22, general education development, brick masonry, adult basic education and job skills training. The lawsuit filed last week by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union and Rob McDuff, a Jackson attorney, contends most of the 1,200 inmates at the lockup aren't even getting basic education.
The 376,000-square-foot facility in Leake County is overseen by the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, a group appointed by the town. The authority has a contract with the state to house the inmates. The authority then contracts with GEO Group, Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based private prison company, to operate the prison. Both the authority and GEO Group are named as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps and state Superintendent of Education Tom Burnham. The lawsuit centers on allegations of inmate abuse fueled by staff shortages and lax oversight. The same kind of environment was described in the training school probe.
House Juvenile Justice Committee Chairman Earle Banks, D-Jackson, said he wants to hold hearings on the allegations as soon as possible.
Banks said he wants to hear from parents of inmates, the operators of the facility, former inmates and former staff. But he said he already has some ideas for proposals geared toward rectifying the situation. For example, Banks wants to strengthen state laws pertaining to the notification of parents when an inmate has been hurt at a corrections facility. During a news conference in Jackson last week, one inmate's father said he didn't know the location of his son for two weeks after the youth was severely attacked.
Senate Judiciary B Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, D-Oxford, said he's also concerned about the allegations raised in the lawsuit. "Certainly, these allegations need to be investigated, which will occur during the course of the lawsuit," Tollison said. "If it is determined that the Legislature needs to make changes regarding the operation of Walnut Grove, then we should do so."
While other lawmakers may want to wait to see how the case unfolds - through the courts and the federal probe - Banks wants to move forward on legislation.
"Whatever the Justice Department does is appreciated, but I am a state lawmaker dealing with state issues in Mississippi," said Banks. "Every day it goes without being handled, that means more kids have to go with this type of alleged treatment."
Shelia Byrd covers Mississippi politics and government for the Associated Press bureau in Jackson.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)