ALEXANDER LOCKUP

Focus on assaults, group drops in on youth lockup

2014 FILE PHOTO: Staff members escort boys between classrooms at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander.
2014 FILE PHOTO: Staff members escort boys between classrooms at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander.

Monitors from a nonprofit disability rights group visited Arkansas' largest youth lockup this week as part of their investigation into what caused an increase in assaults at the facility, the group's director confirmed Thursday.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Tom Masseau, director of the Disability Rights Center of Arkansas, said that monitors made three unannounced visits to the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander and that the initial findings have made it clear that the group will need to have a presence at the lockup for the next several months.

"This is going to be an ongoing process. The more you look at the number of assaults that are reported, the more questions come up," Masseau said.

The added scrutiny at the lockup came after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that assaults nearly doubled at the facility last year.

photo

Assault at Alexander youth lockup with pie chart

The disability rights group's latest visits came the same week that the contractor that operates the lockup sent in an outside consultant to review the youth and staff member "culture" at the facility.

The company also released data showing that the majority of reported assaults at the facility this year have involved the same 12 youths. The facility houses about 100 youths, many of whom are the state's most violent and behaviorally troubled.

On Tuesday, Brian Neupaver, vice president of operations for contractor G4S Youth Services, said that the company was taking a number of steps to cut down on assaults, including requiring the staff to record more information on incidents so that the company can spot and respond to trends more quickly.

"I truly believe this is an extremely safe facility," Neupaver said.

In 2013, the contractor reported 327 assaults at the lockup, a 98 percent increase over the 165 assaults reported in 2012, according to internal state Youth Services Division data obtained under the state Freedom of Information Act.

Under the state's policies, assaults can be verbal or physical, don't have to cause a visible injury and can include various types of altercations. A youth shoving someone could be included in the assault figures along with an altercation that caused serious bodily harm.

In addition to the assaults, the Youth Services Division has disclosed that so far this year there have been at least three allegations of staff members assaulting youths at the lockup that have led to firings, including a reported assault over the June 14-15 weekend.

The latest allegation prompted the Youth Services Division to direct G4S to conduct a facilitywide review and come up with a "plan of action" for addressing and reducing the number of assaults involving staff members.

So far, G4S is "doing what we want them to," said Amy Webb, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which oversees the division.

"We want them to have these conversations and do a deep dive into the programs out here," Webb said. "From our perspective the [assault] numbers are too high."

Division Director Tracy Steele has said his staff is looking into possible explanations for the increase, which he believes is partly an indication that the lockup is handling more violent and disruptive youths now than in past years.

Child advocates and juvenile-justice researchers have said they believe that the increase in assaults is more the result of putting so many troubled youths in large institutionalized settings.

G4S has attributed much of the increase to the facility's use of a broader definition of assault beginning in late 2012.

Handling conflict

On Thursday, Masseau said his group's monitors will be determining how much of the increase in assaults was a result of the definition change. Masseau's group has federal authority to conduct unannounced visits to facilities that house people with disabilities, such as the Alexander lockup.

The monitors, who visited twice this week and once last week, also will be testing the contention that the facility is handling more youths prone to violence.

"I don't buy into the notion that 'We're dealing with the most violent youth around,'" Masseau said. "If you are, then look at different techniques to handle that conflict."

Masseau said he's seen indications that the facility's staff needs to do a better job paying attention to the personal histories of the youths, including any past physical or sexual abuse.

"If you're a victim of sexual abuse and you see this person coming at you, you're going to act out," Masseau said. "I didn't get a good enough answer to make me comfortable that, yes, these staff know exactly the situation that these kids were in to respond to that. It's all about trauma-informed care, and I don't think that they really practice that."

The disability rights group is also looking at the type of physical holds the staff uses to restrain disruptive youths and whether the facility has a disproportionate share of staff members assaulting youths.

Between 2009 and 2013, there were 50 allegations of staff members physically abusing youths, but Youth Services Division internal affairs investigators found only two of those allegations were corroborated.

Division officials have stressed that the internal affairs findings do not correspond to any determinations made by the Arkansas State Police's child abuse hotline or how many were determined legally "true" for purposes of the state's Child Maltreatment Central Registry, which is a list of all people who have been determined to have abused or neglected a child.

On Tuesday, G4S administrators said the company had hired an outside consultant to review the facility and determine whether they need to make changes to help cut down on assaults.

Consultant Darryl Olson spent this week conducting a "qualitative, cultural review" of the facility -- the first time such a review has been conducted at the lockup since G4S took over in 2007.

Olson, who spent 34 years working in the Florida juvenile-justice system, arrived Tuesday to interview youths and staff members and review whether the lockup needs to change to make sure youths are in a safe and positive environment.

Olson, who plans to wrap up his review today, said his work goes beyond just determining whether G4S is abiding by its contract with the state.

"You can be compliant with individual standards and still have cultural issues that need to be addressed," Olson said.

Minimal trouble

During a tour of the lockup this week, the facility was clean and orderly. Youths shot hoops during a physical education class and chatted over their lunches in the school.

Staff members praised the work of the on-site Boys and Girls Club and highlighted improvements made to the facility's school in recent years.

Todd Speight, the facility director, said that before G4S took over the lockup, the school wasn't able to award diplomas and youths took classes crammed into the building that nows houses the facility's administrators.

Since the company arrived, the facility has reduced the number of children it houses, and several students have earned their diplomas or GED certificates. And now the youths attend school in a new building, built with federal funds, that has classrooms with smartboards, computers and signs boasting positive messages along the walls.

During the tour, a handful of staff members, interviewed in the presence of G4S administrators, said they felt safe in their work environment whether supervising youths in their dormitories or teaching them in the facility's school.

In the infirmary, Vanessa Speight, the director of nursing, said she rarely has problems with youths and always has a security staff member nearby if there's trouble.

The nurses interact with all of the youths at some point and are responsible for dispensing medication to 86 of the 100 youths, including 74 who take some form of psychotropic medication, pharmaceuticals that alter a person's brain chemistry to control mood and behavior.

At the facility's school, Principal Amy Mejia said that she remembers only a handful of physical altercations at the school in her four years there.

Sometimes horseplay can get out of hand just as in any other middle or high school, she said, but "if you limit it to a fist-throwing fight, that's very minimal."

"We don't have a fight a day here. We don't have a fight a week," she added.

Special-education teacher Debra Wollard usually teaches a math class of six youths. She keeps a radio on her podium that she uses to call for security if any student gets out of hand.

"I don't usually have much trouble," said Wollard, whom the principal described as one of the school's top teachers.

Disruptive dozen

While the facility staff said few physical altercations have occurred there recently, numbers released this week by G4S show that the lockup's staff has reported 135 assaults in 151 days this year.

Of the assaults between Jan. 1 and May 31, there were 54 altercations between youths and 37 in which youths struck staff members.

The company also reported 34 of the incidents as "involving minor physical contact" and gave examples as a push, shove or "an orange being thrown." The remaining 10 assaults were listed as "youth alleging that another youth assaulted them."

On Tuesday, Todd Speight said he routinely tracks each individual assault and talks with his staff daily about strategies to calm disruptive youths. He said that he is reviewing whether he needs to be more involved in screening employees.

He has directed that staff members review treatment plans of youths involved in the assaults.

That includes a group of 12 youths who were involved in 71 of the reported assaults.

Neupaver said Olson also will review the files of the 12 youths to determine what can be done differently to improve their behavior. All but four of the youths were transferred to the facility because of "disruptive behavior" at other juvenile centers, he said.

"It's really about getting down to what works with that 10 percent of the population," Neupaver said.

Masseau said Thursday that G4S staff members haven't mentioned the 12 youths in their discussions with the disability rights group's monitors.

"They've talked to us about ... why it's so difficult and why their numbers are so up. They haven't said anything to us about a particular number of youth who are creating these problems," he said.

Masseau said that his monitors will now ask about the 12 youths and seek interviews with them. He will also try to find out why G4S didn't identify these youths sooner.

"It goes back to someday these kids are going to be out and interacting with the general public. ... They're going to remember how they were treated," he said.

A Section on 06/27/2014

Upcoming Events