Alabama sheriff officials have asked the FBI to investigate possible civil rights violations after two youth detention employees were charged with sexually assaulting minors at a facility, authorities said Monday.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department was notified of “potential criminal behavior” at the county’s youth detention facility on Wednesday, according to Assistant Chief Deputy Wesley Richerson. The sheriff’s department immediately opened an investigation and discovered that two detention officers had allegedly sexually assaulted two different boys on separate occasions, Richerson said.
That same day, sheriff’s deputies arrested Kentavious Miller, 32, and charged him with first-degree sexual abuse, according to Richerson. Deputies then arrested another detention officer, Labradford Jamell Armistad, 35, on Friday and charged him with seven counts of first-degree sodomy.
“This is an extremely disturbing situation, and to be frank, I’m absolutely appalled at what the evidence has revealed in this case,” Richerson said during a news conference Monday.
Richerson noted that the investigation is still ongoing. While the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department remains the lead on the probe, Richerson said the sheriff’s department requested the FBI to open a criminal investigation into possible civil rights violations.
Both the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and state prosecutors were also contacted about the investigation “because these allegations involve victims that are in custody,” Richerson said.
“Simply put, we will not tolerate those who abuse their abuse their positions to harm others, and we will ensure that all suspects are held accountable in this case,” Richerson added.
Trailer: Ohio youth prisons, detention centers plagued by violence, chaos and neglect
Youth detention officers accused of sexual assault
During the investigation, the sheriff’s department learned that around Dec. 15 a “male juvenile detainee was sexually abused by a detention officer inside the facility,” according to Richerson. Investigators then obtained statements and evidence that led to the arrest of Miller.
Charging documents obtained by news outlet AL.com and television station WSFA alleged that Miller had entered a cell assigned to a 14-year-old boy, approached him while he was lying on a bed, and sexually assaulted him.
Investigators also found evidence that another minor was “sexually assaulted while he was previously incarcerated inside the facility,” Richerson said. He alleged that Armistad sexually assaulted a “male juvenile detainee while he was in his custody.”
Both Miller and Armistad are no longer employed at the youth detention facility, according to Richerson. Before their arrests, Miller had worked at the facility for about five months while Armistad had been employed at the facility for about five years.
Miller was taken to the Montgomery County Detention Facility after his arrest on Wednesday and was initially held on a $7,500 bond, according to WSFA and AL.com. He was later released on bond.
Armistad remains in custody without bond, Richerson said.
Youth detention facilities across the U.S. under scrutiny
The charges in Alabama are the latest in a wave of cases and lawsuits involving youth detention facilities across the country. Allegations of abuse and neglect have sprung up in several states in recent years, including Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois.
In a report released last year, the U.S. Department of Justice examined substantiated incidents from 2013 through 2018 and found that most juvenile detention staff who sexually victimized children faced no legal repercussions for their actions.
An eight-month investigation by USA TODAY’s Network of Ohio newspapers last year exposed years of oppressive lockdowns, deadly violence, and chronic understaffing in the state’s youth prison system. Earlier this year, two teenagers filed a class-action lawsuit against a Kentucky youth detention center and its administrators, claiming that they were subjected to oppressive isolation, denied basic hygiene, showers, and medications, and forced to listen to a toddler song.
Back in May, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 95 people who claimed that staff at youth detention centers throughout Illinois sexually abused them from 1996 to 2017 when they were between the ages of 12 and 17. Months later, the Department of Justice concluded that five Texas juvenile detention centers violated children’s constitutional and civil rights.
The department said the detention centers — which housed children between the ages of 10 and 17 — exposed children to excessive force, failed to protect them from sexual abuse, and deprived them of basic needs. The centers also discriminated against children with disabilities by denying them “reasonable modifications to complete programs required for their release,” as well as equal opportunity to education, according to the department.
Contributing: Tami Abdollah and Minnah Arshad, USA TODAY; Alex Gladden, Montgomery Advertiser; Bianca Moreno-Paz, Austin American-Statesman
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