Boy claims injury by lockup worker

State investigating his allegation

— A teenager at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander has accused a staff member of "forcibly and intentionally" scraping the youth's face against the sidewalk on the campus while breaking up a fight just over a week ago, the state's ombudsman for youths said Tuesday.

The staff member has been placed on administrative leave with pay while the Crimes Against Children Division of the Arkansas State Police investigates the allegation, said ombudsman Scott Tanner, an employee of the state Public Defender Commission who acts as an advocate for children in state custody. He declined to identify the staff member.

Tanner and other state officials did not name the boy, but his mother, Felicia Gray, identified him as Robert Smith.

The altercation happened May 26 outside the center's infirmary, Tanner said.

Smith and at least one other boy were involved in horseplay that became violent, and staff members intervened, Tanner said.

Three staff members held Smith on the sidewalk, Tanner said. Smith alleges that one of the staff members then rubbed his face on the concrete, Tanner said.

The Rev. W.E. Hobbs Sr., an assistant pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Forrest City,provided the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with photographs taken by Smith's sister, using her cell phone, while she and Gray visited the boy at the center Saturday.

The photographs show an eggshaped, burnlike scrape along the length of Smith's right cheekbone. Above that, a similar scrape runs from his eyebrow to the top of his head.

Smith was treated for his injury by the lockup staff, Tanner said.

He added that, judging from the injury, "it's clear that there was an inappropriate technique involved" in the restraint.

"Whenever a physical restraint occurs, the intent is to prevent injury," Tanner said. "Clearly, that did not happen in this case."

Gray, 37, of Forrest City, said her son is mentally retarded and takes medicine for bipolar disorder. She said she's never known him to be violent.

"He's just a child that's fallen onto the wrong path," she said.

Ron Angel, director of the Department of Human Services' Youth Services Division, said the division will investigate whether the employees were adequately trained and supervised.

Department of Human Services spokesman Julie Munsell added that, just because the teenager was injured doesn't "automatically mean" the employee acted inappropriately.Staff members often must physically restrain youths who act aggressively, she said.

"You have incidents at facilities like this every single day," Munsell said.

The allegation is the latest in a series of complaints about the center, which has been run by G4S Youth Services of Richmond, Va., since January 2007. Todd Speight, the center's administrator for G4S, did not return calls seeking comment.

Last year, the Disability Rights Center in Little Rock called attention to four instances in which youths alleged they were inappropriately restrained.

In January, a staff member was fired for using an inappropriate restraint, and two others were fired for misleading investigators about what happened.

Last week, a woman was arrested after authorities said she sexually assaulted a youth while she worked at the center as a nurse.

Despite the problems, Angel said G4S has been doing a good job.

"It's a very tough job running a facility like that because of the nature of the clients being juveniles, and some of them can be violent at times," Angel said. "I think G4S has a track record of being very effective in running a program like this."

Smith had been at Alexander for about a month, after stints in hospitals and at the Southeast Arkansas Regional Juvenile Program in Dermott, Gray said.

He was sentenced to state custody in July 2007 for stealing a coin purse from a girl and for breaking into ahome, she said.

His mother said she heard about the injury a few days after it happened, when she got a call from her 15-year-old son, Tavarious Smith, who is also incarcerated at the center.

On Saturday, she visited RobertSmith, and her daughter took the pictures of his face. The next day, Gray interrupted the church service to show members the photographs.

"She was so distraught," said Hobbs, the assistant pastor. "She walked in the door and she was in tears."

Arkansas, Pages 11, 16 on 06/04/2008

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