LA county axes leadership in juvenile detention system over rampant violence, officer morale collapse – LA Probation Dept cuts 14 managers, 13 chief deputies amid struggles with violence and staffing
July 8, 2024
Authorities in Southern California have axed more than a dozen top officials after complaints of violence and injuries from rank-and-file officers in the county’s juvenile facilities.
Los Angeles County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said that 14 top managers would be impacted and 13 chief deputy positions would be eliminated – “an entire layer of management” in the department, which has 6,600 employees.
The impacted individuals were offered positions in other county offices, authorities said.
Sources tell Fox News Digital the shakeup is connected to chaos within the county’s juvenile facilities. Officers have been complaining of increasing violence against themselves and between inmates at the jails for at least the past two years.
Pepper spray, beatings and neglect: DCS sued over treatment of kids in Tennessee’s juvenile justice facilities
June 26, 2024
One child was kept in solitary confinement until he was driven to rip his hair out. Another was shackled in his cell, held down by staff and pepper sprayed for being “disrespectful.” These are just a few of the allegations laid out in a class action lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Tennessee on Wednesday.
The state of Tennessee, Department of Children’s Services, and the commissioners of both DCS and the Department of Education were named in the suit for failing to protect children in the juvenile justice system from physical and mental harm.
The more than 100 page document alleges that the juvenile justice system in Tennessee punishes children with disabilities instead of treating them, exacerbating mental health problems and pushing kids to self-harm or suicidal ideation. And it states that Tennessee’s DCS has known about many of these issues inside facilities, yet their “policy of inaction” allowed it to continue. The attorney general’s office responded on behalf of DCS and said the department is aware of the lawsuit, but didn’t provide further comment. . .
It details the widespread and illegal use of solitary confinement in facilities across the state. One boy with depression and PTSD was kept in solitary for over six months, the suit alleges, spending 23 hours per day alone in his cell. Staff slipped his homework under the door instead of letting him go to school. He became suicidal.
Teachers say they were attacked by students at residential juvenile detention facility where girl died – Records show 195 calls to 9-1-1, including reports of assault and abuse
June 19, 2024
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Last week, we reported that the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice shut down Lake Academy in Tampa after a girl died there late last month.
A D.J.J. spokesperson sent an email statement to the I-Team Tuesday indicating the department had ended its contract with the company that operated the facility, even before the investigations into the girl’s death were completed.
Now, the I-Team is hearing from two former teachers who were attacked while working at Lake Academy.
Whistleblower shares pictures of nasty conditions inside Dallas County’s juvie lockup
June 16, 2024
What is happening inside the juvenile detention center in Dallas County? It depends on who you ask. Former and current employees came to us with concerns and shared photos of the inside the living conditions when they would come out of.
“You know, it was, it was pretty bad. A former employee who asked me not identify him shared these images. Some of the pictures of toilets overflowing with feces are too disturbing to broadcast so we can’t show them to you. But these we can, it shows a facility in recent months that is filthy and unsanitary. There was trash piled up and they had gnats flying around, you know, all their toilets were clogged up, mattresses were ripped, blankets were ripped, you know, it was, it was (not) pretty.”
He and others we spoke to say they are speaking out because they’re concerned about the living conditions and staffing shortages. Kids as young as 11 years old are inside the juvenile detention facility. “The majority of the times these kids are up, you know, for three or four days straight, you know, it’s just very, very sad to see these kids are being neglected like that. Um, you know, there’s days where they don’t even shower at times just because, you know, there’s no, no staff.”
Justice Department Announces Civil Rights Investigation into Conditions at Kentucky Youth Detention Center
May 15, 2024
The Justice Department announced today that it has opened a statewide investigation into the conditions at eight youth detention centers and one youth development center run by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice.
The investigation will examine whether Kentucky protects children confined in these facilities from harm caused by excessive force by staff, prolonged and punitive isolation and inadequate protection from violence and sexual abuse. The investigation will also examine whether Kentucky provides adequate mental health services and required special education and related services to children with disabilities.
“Confinement in the juvenile justice system should help children avoid future contact with law enforcement and mature into law-abiding, productive members of society. Too often, juvenile justice facilities break our children, exposing them to dangerous and traumatic conditions,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We are launching this investigation to ensure that children in Kentucky youth detention facilities are safe from harm, receive adequate mental health care and get appropriate special education services.”
Lawsuit alleges decades of child sex abuse at Illinois juvenile detention centers statewide
May 7, 2024
Child sexual abuse at Illinois juvenile detention centers was pervasive and systemic for decades, according to disturbing accounts in a lawsuit filed Monday by 95 men and women housed at the youth centers as children.
The lawsuit details alleged incidents of abuse from 1996 to 2017, including gang rape, forced oral sex, beatings and groping of children by corrections officers, sergeants, nurses, therapists, a chaplain and others at nine youth centers. Many plaintiffs said they were threatened or rewarded to keep quiet.
“The State of Illinois has allowed a culture of abuse at Illinois Youth Centers to flourish unabated,” the 186-page complaint said.