FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A federal class-action lawsuit claims a teenage inmate was sexually abused at a youth offender facility where other juveniles were forced to go hungry, endure hot and moldy conditions, and sleep on the floor.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It alleges that a 15-year-old boy who had been held there for 10 months was sexually abused in a laundry room and at a dental office by an employee at Thompson Academy in Pembroke Pines.
According to the lawsuit, the teen reported the sexual abuse to the facility's administrator and other staff, but nothing was done to remove the employee or prevent him from having contact with the children at Thompson Academy.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit said the teen tried to kill himself three times by drinking bleach and attempting to hang himself. The boy -- who is not being identified because The Associated Press does not name people who may be victims of sexual assault -- was released to his mother's care on Friday.
Jesse Williams, senior vice president at Youth Services International, which operates Thompson Academy and 14 other facilities in the U.S., said the lawsuit's claims were unsubstantiated.
He said the staffer accused of assaulting the teen no longer has contact with youth sent to the company's program and will be fired if found to have harmed any children.
The Department of Children and Families has up to 60 days to complete an investigation of the facility's procedures, spokesman Mark Riordan said.
Lawyers from the law center said they interviewed about 20 children from Thompson Academy. One youth claimed an employee physically abused him during a restraint. Others said they were forced to go hungry, endure hot and moldy conditions caused by broken air conditioners, and sleep on the floors of other children's rooms.
The teen and other children in the youth corrections program "endured horrific physical and sexual abuse by staff at the facility and were intimidated by staff from reporting the abuses," the lawsuit claims.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/09/lawsuit-claims-kids-abused-florida-youth-offender-facility/
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
In Memory Of:Farron Barksdale, 32, of Athens Texas
September 23, 2009 Huntsville Times
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of an inmate who died just 12 days after entering prison has been settled with the state Department of Corrections, her lawyers said Tuesday. Though the terms were not disclosed, the settlement was also confirmed by state prison Commissioner Richard Allen. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery on behalf of Mary Barksdale, the mother of Farron Barksdale, 32, of Athens, who died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in his Kilby Prison cell. Barksdale, who pleaded guilty to capital murder in the shooting death of two Athens police officers, had been transferred to the prison just three days earlier to begin serving a sentence of life without parole. Mary Barksdale, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, was represented by Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, and Huntsville attorney Jake Watson. Geraghty and Watson confirmed that Mary Barksdale was awarded a cash settlement, but they would not disclose the amount. The defendants in the suit were former Kilby Warden Arnold Hold, Drs. Michael Robbins and Joseph McGinn, two unnamed correctional officers, an unnamed medical worker and Vienna, Va., based MHM Correctional Services. MHM provides mental health services for the Department of Corrections. The suit alleged that Barksdale, who suffered from schizophrenia, died because of "the deliberate indifference, medical neglect and negligence" of the prison staff. "Mr. Barksdale was medicated with an unusually large dose of psychotropic medications that made his body unable to withstand high temperatures, confined to an isolation cell with a medically dangerous degree of heat and left there without adequate monitoring," the complaint said. "He fell into a coma and died." The complaint said Barksdale was not placed in Kilby's mental health unit, which is air-conditioned. On the day he was found unresponsive in his cell, the temperature in Montgomery was 106 degrees. Kilby is located just east of Montgomery. On that day, the complaint said, correctional officers found Barksdale in a coma, "snoring and moaning," with a temperature of 103.1 degrees. He was taken to the hospital but never regained consciousness after eight days. An autopsy said he died of pneumonia and complications from hypothermia and a blood-clotting problem, and that bruises on his upper body and hip did not contribute to his death. A state prison inmate later wrote in an Oct. 24, 2008, letter to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Eugene Reese that Barksdale was severely beaten by four prison guards. Allen asked the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Corrections' Department of Investigations and Intelligence to reopen the investigation into Barksdale's death, but the results of that probe have never been released. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Department of Corrections must comply with the state's Open Records law and make records available on crimes committed within prisons. The Southern Center for Human Rights had sued over that issue. Despite the high court's 5-0 ruling, Allen said Friday state attorneys may ask for a rehearing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of an inmate who died just 12 days after entering prison has been settled with the state Department of Corrections, her lawyers said Tuesday. Though the terms were not disclosed, the settlement was also confirmed by state prison Commissioner Richard Allen. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery on behalf of Mary Barksdale, the mother of Farron Barksdale, 32, of Athens, who died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in his Kilby Prison cell. Barksdale, who pleaded guilty to capital murder in the shooting death of two Athens police officers, had been transferred to the prison just three days earlier to begin serving a sentence of life without parole. Mary Barksdale, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, was represented by Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, and Huntsville attorney Jake Watson. Geraghty and Watson confirmed that Mary Barksdale was awarded a cash settlement, but they would not disclose the amount. The defendants in the suit were former Kilby Warden Arnold Hold, Drs. Michael Robbins and Joseph McGinn, two unnamed correctional officers, an unnamed medical worker and Vienna, Va., based MHM Correctional Services. MHM provides mental health services for the Department of Corrections. The suit alleged that Barksdale, who suffered from schizophrenia, died because of "the deliberate indifference, medical neglect and negligence" of the prison staff. "Mr. Barksdale was medicated with an unusually large dose of psychotropic medications that made his body unable to withstand high temperatures, confined to an isolation cell with a medically dangerous degree of heat and left there without adequate monitoring," the complaint said. "He fell into a coma and died." The complaint said Barksdale was not placed in Kilby's mental health unit, which is air-conditioned. On the day he was found unresponsive in his cell, the temperature in Montgomery was 106 degrees. Kilby is located just east of Montgomery. On that day, the complaint said, correctional officers found Barksdale in a coma, "snoring and moaning," with a temperature of 103.1 degrees. He was taken to the hospital but never regained consciousness after eight days. An autopsy said he died of pneumonia and complications from hypothermia and a blood-clotting problem, and that bruises on his upper body and hip did not contribute to his death. A state prison inmate later wrote in an Oct. 24, 2008, letter to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Eugene Reese that Barksdale was severely beaten by four prison guards. Allen asked the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Corrections' Department of Investigations and Intelligence to reopen the investigation into Barksdale's death, but the results of that probe have never been released. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Department of Corrections must comply with the state's Open Records law and make records available on crimes committed within prisons. The Southern Center for Human Rights had sued over that issue. Despite the high court's 5-0 ruling, Allen said Friday state attorneys may ask for a rehearing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Are Some States Drugging Incarcerated Kids to Alter Their Behavior?
Are Some States Drugging Incarcerated Kids to Alter Their Behavior?
Despite the risks to the kids, adolescents in detention are being given antipsychotic drugs instead of counseling.
October 6, 2010 | By Marian Wang
http://www.alternet.org/story/148425/are_some_states_drugging_incarcerated_kids_to_alter_their_behavior
Though the use of antipsychotic drugs on children is believed to carry significant risks even when used properly to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, it’s not uncommon in some states for juveniles in detention to be prescribed antipsychotics simply to counter mood disorders or aggressive behavior, according to an investigation by Youth Today, which covers the juvenile justice system and youth services. . . .
+
Please watch the video, and sign....share with others!!
http://criminaljustice.change.org/petitions/view/buried_alive_in_texas_prisons
Buried Alive In Texas Prisons ( petition text)
Franz
CC:
Robert Manor
Prison &Jail Monitor
John Howard Association
(312) 503-6302
Despite the risks to the kids, adolescents in detention are being given antipsychotic drugs instead of counseling.
October 6, 2010 | By Marian Wang
http://www.alternet.org/story/148425/are_some_states_drugging_incarcerated_kids_to_alter_their_behavior
Though the use of antipsychotic drugs on children is believed to carry significant risks even when used properly to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, it’s not uncommon in some states for juveniles in detention to be prescribed antipsychotics simply to counter mood disorders or aggressive behavior, according to an investigation by Youth Today, which covers the juvenile justice system and youth services. . . .
+
Please watch the video, and sign....share with others!!
http://criminaljustice.change.org/petitions/view/buried_alive_in_texas_prisons
Buried Alive In Texas Prisons ( petition text)
Franz
CC:
Robert Manor
Prison &Jail Monitor
John Howard Association
(312) 503-6302
Friday, September 3, 2010
Inmate Dies After Left Out In Arizona's Heat Locked In A Cage
Powell, 48, died last year after being exposed to the sun for nearly four hours at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in Goodyear. On May 19, the day she died, temperatures reached 107.5 degrees.
*Corrections Director Charles Ryan has called Powell's death "unconscionable" and "an absolute failure.
The department disciplined 16 people in connection with the incident, with five employees fired or forced to resign.
But a four-month investigation of the incident by the department last year failed to answer several key questions, including how much water Powell received while in the enclosure, and when and how she succumbed to the heat.
Moreover, investigators could not determine how the actions or inactions of the corrections staff contributed to the delay of discovering that Powell was in distress and on the verge of death.
"We really did spend a lot of time and man-hours looking at this in an effort to see if we could patch together a case that we could prove," Ahler said. "We just felt at the end of the day, we didn't have enough to do that."
Ahler was chairman for the committee that reviewed the investigation. Incident-review teams met five times over the past year in an effort to build a case.
Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground, a prison-reform group, said statements from officers who walked by Powell and ignored her cries could have been enough to charge someone with negligent homicide.
Hamm said she was more troubled about the message corrections officers could take from the county attorney's decision, despite new policies being put in place to limit the amount of time inmates are detained in outdoor cages.
"All of these things that they're doing don't matter a whit unless the staff follows the policy," Hamm said. "Clearly prosecuting someone would send a very strong message, that the policy means something even if they didn't get a conviction. I think exactly the opposite message is communicated: that the staff can act with impunity against the inmates, and there is no recourse."
Hamm said she planned to contact the U.S. Department of Justice to see if it is willing to review the case.
The investigation into Powell's death showed that lengthy confinements in outdoor cages had become a common practice as officers tried to "wait out" prisoners who were agitated or refusing to return to their cells.
Inmate Vanessa Griego, 24, was confined to a similar cage at Perryville for 20 hours last year after refusing to return to her cell. She did not require medical attention, although the incident alarmed staff members and fellow inmates.
"Waiting out" prisoners meant corrections officers did not have to use force to return inmates to their cells. But it also meant inmates were regularly left outdoors for longer than the two-hour maximum dictated by prison policy.
The practice was discontinued as part of a series of reforms initiated in the wake of Powell's death.
Powell, who was serving a sentence for prostitution, said she felt suicidal at 11 a.m. on May 19. She was taken to the outdoor cage to await transportation for psychiatric care.
The sergeant who saw Powell lose consciousness never reported that to supervisors, despite the fact that Powell said she was having trouble breathing, according to the investigation.
At least 20 inmates told investigators that Powell was denied water for most or all of the time she was in her cage, despite regular requests. Those reports were bitterly disputed by officers, who insisted that Powell was given water.
After more than two hours in the sun, Powell asked to be taken back to her indoor cell. She was denied.
Powell also was denied a request to use the restroom and defecated in the cage. An officer saw that Powell had soiled herself but left her where she was, the investigation found. Medical personnel later found feces underneath her fingernails and all over her back.
The psychiatric unit to which Powell was awaiting transport should have accepted her hours before she died, the report said, but a series of miscommunications prevented her being taken in.
The Corrections Department had recommended negligent-homicide charges against seven corrections officers: Esmeralda Pegues, Evan Hazelton, Iain Fenyves, Electra Allen, Cortez Agnew, Anita Macias and Ariana Mena.
A presentation to the County Attorney's Office said the officers were "negligent in providing the appropriate shade and water a reasonable person should have known needed to be provided" to a person in Powell's situation.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has declined to pursue criminal charges in the death of Marcia Powell, a state prison inmate who died of heat-related causes after being left in an outdoor cage for hours.
The Department of Corrections had recommended that seven corrections officers on duty that day be charged with negligent homicide in connection with Powell's death. But there was not enough evidence to prosecute them, said Paul Ahler, chief deputy prosecutor.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/01/20100901goodyear-inmate-heat-death-brk.html#ixzz0yRXqfkvo
*Corrections Director Charles Ryan has called Powell's death "unconscionable" and "an absolute failure.
The department disciplined 16 people in connection with the incident, with five employees fired or forced to resign.
But a four-month investigation of the incident by the department last year failed to answer several key questions, including how much water Powell received while in the enclosure, and when and how she succumbed to the heat.
Moreover, investigators could not determine how the actions or inactions of the corrections staff contributed to the delay of discovering that Powell was in distress and on the verge of death.
"We really did spend a lot of time and man-hours looking at this in an effort to see if we could patch together a case that we could prove," Ahler said. "We just felt at the end of the day, we didn't have enough to do that."
Ahler was chairman for the committee that reviewed the investigation. Incident-review teams met five times over the past year in an effort to build a case.
Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground, a prison-reform group, said statements from officers who walked by Powell and ignored her cries could have been enough to charge someone with negligent homicide.
Hamm said she was more troubled about the message corrections officers could take from the county attorney's decision, despite new policies being put in place to limit the amount of time inmates are detained in outdoor cages.
"All of these things that they're doing don't matter a whit unless the staff follows the policy," Hamm said. "Clearly prosecuting someone would send a very strong message, that the policy means something even if they didn't get a conviction. I think exactly the opposite message is communicated: that the staff can act with impunity against the inmates, and there is no recourse."
Hamm said she planned to contact the U.S. Department of Justice to see if it is willing to review the case.
The investigation into Powell's death showed that lengthy confinements in outdoor cages had become a common practice as officers tried to "wait out" prisoners who were agitated or refusing to return to their cells.
Inmate Vanessa Griego, 24, was confined to a similar cage at Perryville for 20 hours last year after refusing to return to her cell. She did not require medical attention, although the incident alarmed staff members and fellow inmates.
"Waiting out" prisoners meant corrections officers did not have to use force to return inmates to their cells. But it also meant inmates were regularly left outdoors for longer than the two-hour maximum dictated by prison policy.
The practice was discontinued as part of a series of reforms initiated in the wake of Powell's death.
Powell, who was serving a sentence for prostitution, said she felt suicidal at 11 a.m. on May 19. She was taken to the outdoor cage to await transportation for psychiatric care.
The sergeant who saw Powell lose consciousness never reported that to supervisors, despite the fact that Powell said she was having trouble breathing, according to the investigation.
At least 20 inmates told investigators that Powell was denied water for most or all of the time she was in her cage, despite regular requests. Those reports were bitterly disputed by officers, who insisted that Powell was given water.
After more than two hours in the sun, Powell asked to be taken back to her indoor cell. She was denied.
Powell also was denied a request to use the restroom and defecated in the cage. An officer saw that Powell had soiled herself but left her where she was, the investigation found. Medical personnel later found feces underneath her fingernails and all over her back.
The psychiatric unit to which Powell was awaiting transport should have accepted her hours before she died, the report said, but a series of miscommunications prevented her being taken in.
The Corrections Department had recommended negligent-homicide charges against seven corrections officers: Esmeralda Pegues, Evan Hazelton, Iain Fenyves, Electra Allen, Cortez Agnew, Anita Macias and Ariana Mena.
A presentation to the County Attorney's Office said the officers were "negligent in providing the appropriate shade and water a reasonable person should have known needed to be provided" to a person in Powell's situation.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has declined to pursue criminal charges in the death of Marcia Powell, a state prison inmate who died of heat-related causes after being left in an outdoor cage for hours.
The Department of Corrections had recommended that seven corrections officers on duty that day be charged with negligent homicide in connection with Powell's death. But there was not enough evidence to prosecute them, said Paul Ahler, chief deputy prosecutor.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/01/20100901goodyear-inmate-heat-death-brk.html#ixzz0yRXqfkvo
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Prison Is Designed To Break Ones Spirit
Prison is designed to break ones spirit and destroy ones resolve. To do this the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality - all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.
-Nelson Mandela
-Nelson Mandela
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
SC. Inmate Beaten By Prison Guard
SC deputy investigated, fired after inmate beating
CAMDEN, S.C. — Authorities say a deputy has been fired after being caught on video beating a South Carolina inmate dozens of times in the legs with a baton or pipe.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said Monday that state police and the FBI are investigating whether the civil rights of inmate Charles Shelley were violated. Columbia television station WIS-TV aired the surveillance video of the beating Thursday and reported that Shelly's leg was broken and he needed stitches.
Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said the deputy was fired. The sheriff did not give the deputy's name.
Shelley told the station he had been arrested on an outstanding warrant and other violations. WIS said the deputy reported the inmate threatened him.
CAMDEN, S.C. — Authorities say a deputy has been fired after being caught on video beating a South Carolina inmate dozens of times in the legs with a baton or pipe.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said Monday that state police and the FBI are investigating whether the civil rights of inmate Charles Shelley were violated. Columbia television station WIS-TV aired the surveillance video of the beating Thursday and reported that Shelly's leg was broken and he needed stitches.
Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said the deputy was fired. The sheriff did not give the deputy's name.
Shelley told the station he had been arrested on an outstanding warrant and other violations. WIS said the deputy reported the inmate threatened him.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Federal Oversight for Troubled N.Y. Youth Prisons
Federal Oversight for Troubled N.Y. Youth Prisons
Four of New York’s most dangerous and troubled youth prisons will be placed under federal oversight, strict new limits will be imposed on the use of physical force by guards, and dozens of psychiatrists, counselors and investigators will be hired under a sweeping agreement finalized on Wednesday between state and federal official
The agreement will usher in the most significant expansion of mental health services in years for youths in custody, the vast majority of whom suffer from drug or alcohol problems, developmental disabilities or mental health problems.
Currently, the state does not have a single full-time psychiatrist on staff to treat young offenders.
Guards at the youth prisons, known as youth counselors, will be barred from physically restraining youths except when a person’s physical safety is threatened or a youth is trying to escape from the institution.
Guards will be allowed to use the most controversial method — in which a youth is forced to the ground and held face-down — for at most three minutes, with evaluation by a doctor to follow within four hours.
The accord comes almost a year after the Justice Department threatened to take over New York’s juvenile justice system unless the state took significant steps to rectify problems at the four prisons, where physical abuse was rampant and mental health counseling was scant or nonexistent.
“It is New York’s fundamental responsibility to protect juveniles in its custody from harm and to uphold their constitutional rights,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “We have worked cooperatively with New York officials to craft an agreement to ensure that the constitutional rights of juveniles at the four facilities are protected, and we commend New York and the New York State Office of Children and Families for their willingness to work aggressively to remedy these problems.”
Federal investigators found that staff members at the four institutions — the Lansing Residential Center and the Louis Gossett Jr. Residential Center, in Lansing, and two residences, one for boys and one for girls, at Tryon Residential Center in Johnstown — routinely used physical force to discipline the youths, resulting in broken bones, shattered teeth, concussions and dozens of other serious injuries in a period of less than two years.
Introducing Legislation in June to let judges sentence youths to juvenile prisons only if they had been found guilty of a violent crime or a sex crime or were deemed to be a serious threat to themselves or others. Juvenile prisons house those convicted of criminal acts, from truancy to murder, who are too young to serve in adult jails and prisons.
The federal inquiry began in 2007 after a spate of episodes, including the 2006 death of a disturbed 15-year-old after two employees at the Tryon center pinned him down on the ground.
Two monitors, jointly chosen by federal and state officials, will oversee the state’s efforts to carry out the accord over the next two years, making regular progress reports to a federal judge, who must approve the agreement before it goes into effect
The state-federal accord, filed in United States District Court in Albany, echoes recommendations issued in December by a state task force, which found major shortcomings throughout the youth prison system. The task force recommended substantially expanding mental health care and replacing most residential youth prisons with smaller centers closer to communities where most young offenders and their families are from.
It Will require all youth prisons in New York to abide by the restrictions on physical restraint. She said the state also planned to hire a chief psychiatrist in the near future to oversee drug regimens and mental health counseling at all of the state’s youth prisons.
But advocates for youths in state custody said they would continue to seek a far-reaching transformation in the juvenile justice system in New York, which they say merely warehouses youths who in most cases need intensive psychiatric care and counseling rather than being locked up.
“The changes will only affect those kids who have mental health needs who are already incarcerated,” said Gabrielle Prisco, director of the Juvenile Justice Project at the Correctional Association of New York. “It doesn’t get to the fact that any of those young people could be safely treated in their communities without ever seeing the inside of a prison cell.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/nyregion/15juvenile.html?scp=13&sq=juveniles%20/us&st=cse
Four of New York’s most dangerous and troubled youth prisons will be placed under federal oversight, strict new limits will be imposed on the use of physical force by guards, and dozens of psychiatrists, counselors and investigators will be hired under a sweeping agreement finalized on Wednesday between state and federal official
The agreement will usher in the most significant expansion of mental health services in years for youths in custody, the vast majority of whom suffer from drug or alcohol problems, developmental disabilities or mental health problems.
Currently, the state does not have a single full-time psychiatrist on staff to treat young offenders.
Guards at the youth prisons, known as youth counselors, will be barred from physically restraining youths except when a person’s physical safety is threatened or a youth is trying to escape from the institution.
Guards will be allowed to use the most controversial method — in which a youth is forced to the ground and held face-down — for at most three minutes, with evaluation by a doctor to follow within four hours.
The accord comes almost a year after the Justice Department threatened to take over New York’s juvenile justice system unless the state took significant steps to rectify problems at the four prisons, where physical abuse was rampant and mental health counseling was scant or nonexistent.
“It is New York’s fundamental responsibility to protect juveniles in its custody from harm and to uphold their constitutional rights,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “We have worked cooperatively with New York officials to craft an agreement to ensure that the constitutional rights of juveniles at the four facilities are protected, and we commend New York and the New York State Office of Children and Families for their willingness to work aggressively to remedy these problems.”
Federal investigators found that staff members at the four institutions — the Lansing Residential Center and the Louis Gossett Jr. Residential Center, in Lansing, and two residences, one for boys and one for girls, at Tryon Residential Center in Johnstown — routinely used physical force to discipline the youths, resulting in broken bones, shattered teeth, concussions and dozens of other serious injuries in a period of less than two years.
Introducing Legislation in June to let judges sentence youths to juvenile prisons only if they had been found guilty of a violent crime or a sex crime or were deemed to be a serious threat to themselves or others. Juvenile prisons house those convicted of criminal acts, from truancy to murder, who are too young to serve in adult jails and prisons.
The federal inquiry began in 2007 after a spate of episodes, including the 2006 death of a disturbed 15-year-old after two employees at the Tryon center pinned him down on the ground.
Two monitors, jointly chosen by federal and state officials, will oversee the state’s efforts to carry out the accord over the next two years, making regular progress reports to a federal judge, who must approve the agreement before it goes into effect
The state-federal accord, filed in United States District Court in Albany, echoes recommendations issued in December by a state task force, which found major shortcomings throughout the youth prison system. The task force recommended substantially expanding mental health care and replacing most residential youth prisons with smaller centers closer to communities where most young offenders and their families are from.
It Will require all youth prisons in New York to abide by the restrictions on physical restraint. She said the state also planned to hire a chief psychiatrist in the near future to oversee drug regimens and mental health counseling at all of the state’s youth prisons.
But advocates for youths in state custody said they would continue to seek a far-reaching transformation in the juvenile justice system in New York, which they say merely warehouses youths who in most cases need intensive psychiatric care and counseling rather than being locked up.
“The changes will only affect those kids who have mental health needs who are already incarcerated,” said Gabrielle Prisco, director of the Juvenile Justice Project at the Correctional Association of New York. “It doesn’t get to the fact that any of those young people could be safely treated in their communities without ever seeing the inside of a prison cell.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/nyregion/15juvenile.html?scp=13&sq=juveniles%20/us&st=cse
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