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.”