{"id":3154,"date":"2017-05-26T20:27:23","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T20:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arknews.org\/?p=3154"},"modified":"2017-05-26T20:27:23","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T20:27:23","slug":"abuse-again-at-arkansas-juvenile-lockup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2017\/05\/26\/abuse-again-at-arkansas-juvenile-lockup\/","title":{"rendered":"Abuse again at Arkansas juvenile lockup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FORMER GUARD: In a still from video footage at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, Darrell Woods jumps over a table to grab a 15-year-old, who Woods later pushed against a wall with his hand around the boy's throat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After years of scandal and allegations of mistreatment of juveniles, the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center (AJATC), a 100-bed juvenile lockup facility near Alexander, was handed over last summer to a new contractor promising a fresh start. Michael Cantrell, executive director of the southeastern region for Rite of Passage, the Nevada-based for-profit company that was awarded the $34 million contract in 2016, said at the time that the company was committed to \u201ctransform a harder facility into a softer facility.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

However, Amy Lafont, an attorney representing several families with children locked up at the facility, said that AJATC continues to take an overly punitive approach, which she described as \u201ca culture of casual violence.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Lafont recently acquired a video<\/a> captured by the facility\u2019s cameras of an incident last December in which a guard jumped over a table, grabbed a 15-year-old, and pushed him against the wall with his hand around his throat. The child, who is Lafont\u2019s client, did not appear in the video to be acting in a\u00a0way that could be construed as endangering himself or others. The guard, Darrell Woods, whose official job title was group living counselor, was fired. The Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division (CADC) investigated the incident and determined in January that Woods\u2019 actions constituted child maltreatment and that Woods\u2019 name should be placed on the Arkansas Child Maltreatment Central Registry.<\/span><\/p>\n

The juvenile and his family say he attempted to notify staff about what happened and had visible bruising on his neck, but no action was taken until two days later. Rite of Passage disputes both of these claims, arguing that it was an isolated incident of an individual guard failing to follow protocol and that Rite of Passage followed the proper procedure in notifying the State Police once it learned of the allegation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Department of Human Services spokesperson Amy Webb declined to comment, saying the agency was prohibited by law from answering questions about any specific child maltreatment investigations. A true finding of abuse by CACD at a facility overseen by DHS\u2019 Division of Youth Services must be reported to DYS, and presumably was in this case. As a matter of general policy, Webb said, in such a scenario, \u201cDYS also conducts its own review of an incident and takes any follow-up action necessary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

AJATC is one of seven juvenile lockup facilities, known as treatment centers, overseen by DYS. In total, 305 youths are housed at these facilities (there are also 14 \u00a0county-level lockup facilities, where youths would first be taken upon arrest). They are called treatment centers because they are intended to be therapeutic and rehabilitative rather than punitive, and they are required to provide education that meets state standards and allows youths to continue on a path to graduation from high school. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before Rite of Passage took control last year, AJATC had a long history of trouble. In 2003, the facility was placed under federal court supervision after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found various violations of constitutional rights, including unsafe conditions, inadequate education and forced participation in religious activities. In 2007, while still under court supervision, an internal state investigation found that the lockup\u2019s staffers were improperly drugging children without their consent to control their behavior. That scandal led DYS to replace then-contractor Cornell Interventions with a new company, G4S (both are for-profit corporations), but more controversy came in 2014. The attorney general found that DYS was illegally taking DNA samples from hundreds of youths at AJATC. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette<\/span> reported that the number of violent incidents at the facility had nearly doubled after it was released from federal supervision. Multiple staffers were fired or resigned after accusations of assaulting youths. An investigation by the Disability Rights Center of Arkansas also found systemic problems at the facility, including accusations that staff members had used candy to bribe youths to fight each other. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some juvenile justice advocates argued that AJATC should be shut down. Paul Kelly, a longtime senior policy analyst for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families who retired this month, said research strongly suggests that large institutional settings like AJATC are harmful rather than rehabilitative for most children. \u201cAll of the youth justice advocates across the country and all of the states around us are saying that these are not good places for kids to be,\u201d he said. He said it was of particular concern when such institutions were run by a private for-profit company. <\/span><\/p>\n

For years, Kelly said, Arkansas has systematically overinvested in institutions like AJATC and underinvested in community-based alternatives. Arkansas Advocates estimates that the state has fewer than 50 youths who need to be confined in a heavily secured lockup facility like AJATC. (Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families has contributed funding to the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network for reporting on juvenile justice issues.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The state made another major investment in AJATC in 2016, when it awarded a three-year contract to Rite of Passage, which won the bid over G4S despite a higher price tag. During a\u00a0legislative review of the contract, Rite of Passage, which runs more than 40 other programs for troubled youths in 16 states, including similar facilities for juvenile offenders, was asked about problems that have occurred in some of its facilities. A staffer in Colorado in 2014 and another\u00a0in Texas in 2016 were charged with offenses related to sexual contact with youths in custody. Multiple investigations of a facility in Nevada found poor conditions and rights violations, and riots broke out in December 2015, leading to a fire and the escape of 10 juveniles. Rite of Passage officials said that these were isolated incidents and that occasional problems were inevitable when dealing with this population. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The incident at AJATC that led Rite of Passage to terminate Woods\u2019 employment took place on Dec. 1, in Building 19 \u2014 a building used for initial assessment when youths first arrive as inmates and also as a space to remove inmates from the general programming if they do not behave. Sometimes, youths are confined in small individual cells. \u201cIt\u2019s a last resort,\u201d said Cantrell. \u201cIt\u2019s a space where kids can get themselves together and the ultimate goal is getting them back into normal programming as quickly as possible.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Rite of Passage, Jason \u2014 his name has been changed in this story to protect his anonymity \u2014 was sent to Building 19 on Dec. 1 because he had acted up in class and then again in the in-school-suspension classroom. The altercation with Woods took place in an open space in Building 19 after Jason had been briefly let out of his cell. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Jason\u2019s account, he was waiting to get word from the shift supervisor about where he was supposed to go next, but Woods declined to contact the supervisor and ordered Jason to go to his cell. Jason said he wouldn\u2019t go to his cell until he heard from the shift supervisor. Woods\u2019 statement in Rite of Passage\u2019s own internal investigation doesn\u2019t mention the request to see the shift supervisor; it simply states that Jason continually refused to go back to his cell. <\/span><\/p>\n

At some point during this dispute, Woods began to chase Jason around the room. According to Jason, he flicked a playing card and Woods threw a mesh bag at him. According to Woods\u2019 account, it was Jason who threw the mesh bag, but on the video it appears that Woods threw it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, Woods jumped over the table and grabbed Jason. With his hand around Jason\u2019s throat, he slammed him against the wall, holding him in this position for several seconds. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was choking me,\u201d Jason said in an interview with ANNN conducted at AJATC in March. \u201cHe said, \u2018If I say, \u201cYou gonna go in your room,\u201d you gonna go in your room.\u2019 I was just trying to breathe. I was thinking in my head, I was like, \u2018Dang, I hope he don\u2019t kill me.\u2019 If he would\u2019ve kept choking me for about 10 more seconds, I know I would\u2019ve passed out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n