"Such allegations must be cleared up. With the emphasis on allegations. And on must."
--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday.
The state's largest juvenile lockup is said to have problems. Plural. It's located in Alexander, and Alexander is where investigators are needed to look into those problems, and find out if the complaints are real or just made up--which can happen in juvenile lockups. (Or in any lockup.)
Back in June, the paper reported that the number of assaults at the facility had increased 98 percent--yes, ninety-eight percent--in 2013 as compared to the year before. More than 325 assaults were reported there in 2013. Is that proof that events at the lockup have taken a violent turn, or just a case of more assaults being reported up the chain instead of going unnoticed and ignored? It'd be good to know.
So far in 2014, four employees at the lockup have either resigned or been fired following accusations of assault. Is that a sign of a staff out of control, or a sign that the company in charge of the facility is weeding out employees who need to go? Somebody should try to find out.
This week an outside group with legal authority to monitor the lockup--it's called the Disability Rights Center of Arkansas--released a troubling report. It says kids at the lockup told its investigators that some of the staff rewards and/or bribes some kids to harass others. Is this a case of a staff's running wild, or is it just all in the imagination of troubled kids?
Somebody, some outfit, some independent agency, needs to do its own investigation. And try to find answers to such questions. Would the Arkansas State Police be a good place to find such unbiased investigators? We think so.
In response to this week's report from the Disability Rights Center, and the responses to the report from the Youth Service Division, the only sure thing concerned citizens may know is that the whole exchange boils down to the usual Am Not, Are Too.
The executive director of the Disability Rights Center is Tom Masseau, and when he met with officials of the Youth Services Division and Human Services Department last week, they said, in summary, prove it: Give us the names of the kids making the accusations about these abusive tactics and let us look into it. Mr. Masseau said nothin' doing. That'd break the trust between the kids and his outfit.
Speaking for the private company that runs the lockup, its PR people told the papers that the kids have 24/7 access to the state's child-abuse hotline. In turn, Mr. Masseau said, yeah, but they have to request access to a phone first, and have a staff member present during the phone call.
This week's back-and-forth between the various sides seems to be getting a mite snippy. It shouldn't. All this is too important for snippy. Everybody ought to concentrate on the welfare and futures of these kids, not on covering their own backsides.
The private company in charge of the lockup at Alexander says it'll now conduct exit interviews with kids as they're leaving the place. Which is fine as far as it goes. But how much usable information can you get from a juvenile who's been in what amounts to prison for weeks or months?
Officials with the state say they've requested a review of the lockup's mental-health services. Which is good, too, considering reports that one part-time psychiatrist is supposedly taking care of the mental health of nearly 100 kids.
Also, the state plans to get bids to improve the range of surveillance cameras at the lockup--so there'll be fewer Dead Zones where abuse can take place without its being recorded. Good.
All those steps might help security at the lockup in the future. But what about redressing any past injustices? What about setting those right? By dismissing more employees at the lockup, or dismissing these accusations against them should they prove groundless.
All of that will require an outside investigation. If the State Police would be a good place to start looking for impartial investigators, a good time to start looking for them would be now.
Editorial on 08/22/2014