Juvenile Justice Agency Agrees to Reform Main Prison

By MICHELLE LIU, Related Press/Report for America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Division of Juvenile Justice introduced Thursday that it’s going to reform its beleaguered central jail for teenagers below a settlement settlement with the federal authorities.

The settlement with the U.S. Division of Justice follows a 2020 report from the federal company that ordered the state to make adjustments on the Broad River Highway Complicated in Columbia or face a lawsuit.

Federal investigators discovered state officers had been violating the rights of incarcerated youths by failing to guard them from fights, forcing them to spend days or perhaps weeks in isolation for minor offenses and failing to get them psychological well being once they threaten to hurt or kill themselves.

The Justice Division reiterated these findings in Thursday courtroom filings, observing that company workers hurt kids with extreme pressure comparable to choking, punching, kicking, and twisting arms; and that the company would not completely examine abuse allegations.

State officers have agreed to make sure amenities are correctly staffed, supply rehabilitative programming and revise its use-of-force insurance policies, in keeping with the settlement filed in federal courtroom. The state has additionally agreed to rent consultants on staffing and conduct administration, overhaul its safety digicam system, restrict its use of solitary confinement and adequately prepare its workers, amongst different measures.

“We’re optimistic and decided to make use of this Settlement Settlement as a chance to institute sweeping reforms that can positively influence youth, their households, our workers, and the state of South Carolina,” stated Eden Hendrick, the company’s interim chief, in a press release.

Juvenile Justice officers acknowledged the federal use-of-force findings as “regarding” however stated the company has since taken steps to handle these points.

Hendrick, who took over final fall after then-director Freddie Pough’s resignation, has outlined to lawmakers her deliberate overhaul of the company. She has restructured company’s management, modernized amenities, instituted sign-on and retention bonuses on the company to attempt to fill correctional officer vacancies and requested lawmakers for funding to maneuver mentally ailing youth out of detention amenities they’re illegally housed at, she stated earlier this 12 months.

Pough stepped down following a scathing state audit, a no-confidence vote by state senators and a walkout by correctional officers on the Broad River Highway Complicated.

Final 12 months’s state audit discovered a variety of points, from a rise in violence at company amenities to college students lacking GED testing as a result of they had been locked up in isolation items. Staffing and transportation shortages additionally meant some youths weren’t receiving satisfactory and well timed medical care.

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