LITTLE ROCK — Amid allegations of children being abused in state custody, Gov. Mike Huckabee announced Friday that he will close the Youth Services Division's Observation and Assessment Center in North Little Rock.
At a news conference in front of the center, Huckabee said it will be completely shut down in 60 days. During that time, children housed at the center will be moved into other state facilities. On Friday, 61 children were at the center.
Eight lawmakers, including State Sen. Cliff Hoofman, D-North Little Rock, attended the news conference and peppered the governor with questions. Many said they feel shut out of the loop on the center's fate.
"Obviously, it was not an attempt to keep legislators out of it," Huckabee said. "It's a matter that, on one hand, we're told we are not doing enough. When we do it, we're told we are not giving enough information, so we're trying to take the actions as quickly as possible."
"We will continue to fix the problem. And every single thing we can do, we're going to do and will continue to do," Huckabee said. "It's in our court. We understand that, and we're going to deal with it."
Huckabee's news conference may have come in reaction to three legislators' late Thursday night visit to the North Little Rock center. The lawmakers found a few problems, such as cramped quarters and a lack of air conditioning with not enough fans to go around.
Juvenile delinquents placed in the state's custody are sent to the center for medical checkups and an assessment of their mental and emotional state. Youth Services Division officials then decide where the children should be placed within the system. Ideally, the youths remain at the center no longer than 60 days. But because of overcrowding elsewhere, they often remain longer.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette began a six-part series Sunday on the division's problems, including physical abuse of delinquent children in the state's care. Boys have alleged they were beaten and raped at the center. The division is a part of the state Department of Human Services.
In April and May teams from the Department of Correction and the Department of Health inspected the center and the Alexander Youth Services Center. The inspections turned up problems like backed-up toilets, filthy kitchens, readily accessible knives and blocked fire exits.
Huckabee said he decided Friday morning to shut down the North Little Rock facility.
"We feel this facility is simply not workable for youth in the situation that it's in, and we do not want to try to continue to make something work that is simply not working as well as it should," Huckabee said.
Since abuse allegations were brought to their attention by a Democrat-Gazette reporter in April, the governor and the department have been looking at changes including hiring a new director, firing seven employees and asking for FBI and state police investigations.
The administration's plans for what will become of the children at the center, however, are sketchy.
The division's director, Paul Doramus, said his staff will "identify the needs of the children individually and determine what is the best placement." Doramus began work June 1.
"This is not a knee-jerk reaction," Doramus said. "This is something that has been organized and orchestrated. There is a game plan for the next 60 days as we move juveniles out."
Doramus and other Human Services Department officials said most of the children will be moved to Alexander.
Doramus said State Building Services has been asked to rehabilitate and refurbish unused buildings at Alexander. He said he believes the work can be done quickly.
Children are now housed in six cottages at Alexander. Four cottages house low-to-medium risk juvenile offenders, and two house serious offenders -- one for boys and one for girls.
In some situations, children will be moved into one of the state's wilderness camps. The state has wilderness camps at Mansfield, Colt, Harrisburg and Lewisville. The contracts for the Mansfield and Colt camps have not been renewed. The operators of the Harrisburg and Lewisville camps will each take one of the camps for the next 90 days until a new contract can be signed. Another facility is under construction in Dermott.
Some children may be moved into a sexual-offender program at the State Hospital, a mental health facility, Human Services Department spokesman Joe Quinn said.
Quinn said "many, many juvenile delinquents are sexual offenders" who need intensive treatment.
Rep. Pat Flanagin, D-Forrest City, questioned how closing the center will correct the problems.
"If you move the same people and the same program from this building to another one, have you solved the problem?" Flanagin said.
Quinn admitted that closing the center is not a panacea, but he described it as a start.
"We're looking at a series of steps. We don't claim anyone one step is going to solve all of the problems," Quinn said. "But the (center) is an antiquated, dark, claustrophobic place which was, frankly, built at time when people were more interested in a punitive justice process."
Earlier this week Rep. Dennis Young, D-Texarkana, asked Huckabee to call the Legislature into special session to address the abuse and mismanagement problems. Young also proposed transferring the division to the Correction Department.
"We will always take a look at anything reasonable and responsible, but just having a special session without a piece of legislation would be a little premature," Huckabee said Friday.
Around 3:45 p.m., Young personally delivered a draft of a bill to make the Youth Services Division independent of the Human Services Department.
Huckabee spokesman Jim Harris criticized Young's bill but said the governor would examine it over the weekend.
"This morning Mr. Young wanted DYS to become part of the Department of Correction," Harris said. "This afternoon he wants it to be a separate agency. The governor is working on real solutions and doesn't have time to respond to Mr. Young's constant flow of knee-jerk reactions."
Other changes within the division are under way, Doramus said, including:
- Enforcing a division policy allowing it to quickly fire employees who abuse children.
- Hiring a full-time physician.
- Improving psychological services at the Alexander facility
- Improving security and training.
The Thursday night visit to the center was Young's idea.
Young said he was watching television in the Capitol Hill Apartments when he asked Rep. James Luker, D-Wynne, and Rep. Roger Rorie, D-Fox, in another room playing cards, if they wanted to come along.
He said that when the three arrived at the center around 11 p.m., he found employees "scrambling to remove trash cans and clean up the desks." But Young said that, overall, the facility was clean and well-staffed.
"I was impressed with the quality of employees they had out there last night," he said.
Young said that while the facility was clean and quiet, he saw some problems.
"In one pod they had a fan blowing into one of the cells, with the kids laying right there on the floor getting the benefit of the fan," Young said. "In the other three cells there are no fans. So what one gentleman said is that every hour he moves that fan from one to the next so that each one of them will receive benefit of cool air during the night."
He said one of the employees had asked for more equipment at the center but was denied. He said the employee had even offered to bring fans from home but again was refused.
Rorie said one cell had a blanket over its light fixtures. When he asked about it, someone removed the blanket, making the cell "look like daytime," Rorie said.
Rorie then said he noticed how some of the cells were brightly lighted while others had no lights at all, so guards had to use flashlights to make sure the juveniles were there.
Rorie said that many problems he noticed were simple ones that could have been corrected long ago.
But of more importance to Young and Rorie was that although Huckabee has said a thorough investigation of the problems at the center is under way, none of the employees the three lawmakers spoke to Thursday claimed to have been contacted by the state police, the Human Services Department or the Youth Services Division.
"There wasn't one single employee at O and A last night who had been spoken to by anyone," Young said.
"Something's wrong at the top, not at the bottom," Rorie said.