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In 2014, juvenile detention centers across Arkansas were using a device designed for restraining violent adults to immobilize children. The device, known as The Wrap, handcuffed the juveniles and immobilized their legs, to prevent them from harming themselves or others.
As part of his job as the state’s juvenile justice ombudsman, Scott Tanner interviewed youths in state custody. What he learned led the state Division of Youth Services to direct the Yell County Juvenile Detention Center to stop restraining juveniles in a manner that the state said was “potentially dangerous” and “exposes the youth to ridicule and humiliation.”
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained documents that revealed abusive uses of the device. Chad Day reported that the staff at the Danville detention center had taken things a step farther and incorporated a motorcycle helmet covered in duct tape, as can be seen on this Page 1 of the Oct. 9 Democrat-Gazette. Danville’s center had been using the device to punish juveniles in the detention system. The photo, obtained by the newspaper through the Freedom of Information Act, shows staff at the facility demonstrating The Wrap on Tanner.
The Wrap, minus the duct-taped covered helmet, was also in use at three other juvenile facilities around the state, but those facilities had no reports of using the device as punishment.
Day’s subsequent investigative reporting revealed The Wrap and a mechanical restraint chair had been used at the Yell County facility 52 times between January and September, with 40 of those incidents as punishment for offenses such as yelling, throwing wet socks and using rude hand gestures.
Use of The Wrap as punishment violated state juvenile-detention standards.
But The Wrap was only the beginning of the story. The Democrat-Gazette investigation revealed that between 2011 and 2014, staff at the Yell County center had also pepper-sprayed youths and used handcuffs and shackles to hogtie youths, often as punishment.
On one occasion a juvenile was confined in The Wrap for six hours with just two short breaks. On another occasion a youth was pepper-sprayed while restrained in The Wrap because “even tied up, an employee thought the girl was ‘belligerent.’”
Many of the youths punished with The Wrap and the other methods were in state custody for mental health and behavioral treatment, not because they were criminal offenders.
Over the course of its investigation the Democrat-Gazette reviewed more than 800 reports from the Yell County facility.
In addition to the 10 news stories by Chad Day and Aziza Musa, the Democrat-Gazette wrote three editorials condemning the use of The Wrap under any circumstances and questioning the policies in place at juvenile lockups across the state.
As a result of that investigation, the state Youth Services Division stopped sending youths to the Yell County Detention Center until an independent investigation had been completed, which it was in March 2015.
— Kelly Brant
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