Burning Down the House : The End of Juvenile Prison (9781595589668) (56 page)

118
  
Lovisa Stannow
: Just Detention International, “New Justice Report Minimizes Rampant Sexual Abuse of Detained Youth,”
Corrections.com
, November 22, 2010,
www.corrections.com/news/article/26435-new-justice-department-report-minimizes-rampant-sexual-abuse-of-detained-youth
.

119
  
Review Panel on Prison Rape
: Review Panel on Prison Rape, “Report on Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Correctional Facilities,” 35.

120
  
Texas Observer
's Nate Blakeslee
: Nate Blakeslee, “Hidden in Plain Sight: How Did Alleged Abuse at a Youth Facility in West Texas Evade Detection for So Long?”
Texas Observer
, February 23, 2007,
www.texasobserver.org/hidden-in-plain-sight/
.

121
  
“collected dozens of statements”
: Ibid.

122
  
Dallas Morning News
: Michael Ainsworth, “Abuse Scandal Rocks TYC,”
Dallas Morning News
,
shron.wordpress.com/texas-youth-commission-scandal/
.

122
  
“generally thought to under-represent the true extent of such abuse”
: Kaiser and Stannow, “Crisis of Juvenile Prison Rape.”

123
  
Thousands of calls came in
: Ralph Blumenthal, “Complaints Flood Texas Youth Hot Line,”
New York Times
, March 26, 2007.

123
  
Texas had been neck and neck with Florida
: Solomon Moore, “Troubles Mount Within Texas Youth Detention Agency,”
New York Times
, October 6, 2007.

123
  
Employees were required to go through training
: Laura Burke, “A Woman's Touch,”
Texas Observer
, September 1, 2010,
www.texasobserver.org/a-womans-touch/
.

124
  
nine state facilities closed their doors entirely
: Brandi Grissom, “Trial Run for Revised Juvenile Justice System,”
Texas Tribune
, June 27, 2013.

124
  
“It's nuts that it's taken us five years”
: Mike Ward, “Texas Confronts Broken Juvenile Justice System, Again,”
Austin American-Statesman
, July 28, 2012,
www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-confronts-broken-juvenile-justice-system-aga/nRqSD/
.

125
  
Cherie Townsend took over
: Patrick Michels, “Texas Bets on Small Fixes to Reduce Violence in Youth Lockups,”
Texas Observer
, September 6, 2012,
www.texasobserver.org/texas-bets-on-small-fixes-to-reduce-violence-in-youth-lockups/
.

125
  
Corsicana Residential Treatment Center
: Beck, Harrison, Guerino, “Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008–09.”

125
  
Victory Field Correctional Academy
: Paul Knight, “Texas' Youth Prisons Among the Worst for Sexual Abuse, Study Finds,”
Houston Press
, January 13, 2010,
blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/01/youth_molest_prison_rape.php
.

125
  
she was “disappointed” in the federal report
: Burke, “Woman's Touch.”

126
  
“It's a way of getting attention . . . who are very sophisticated”
: Ibid.

126
  
The “traps” set . . . “ ‘try to manipulate them' ”
: Review Panel on Prison Rape, “Report on Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails,” p. 29.

127
  
“some widely accepted recommended practices”
: Beck, Harrison, and Guerino, “Special Report,” p. 32.

127
  
This institution lacked all the trappings of protection
: Ibid.

128
  
“A humane culture of care”
: Ibid., pp. 7–8.

7. The Hole: Solitary Confinement of Juveniles

129
  
“It's an awful thing”
: Chris Vogel, “For Their Own Good,”
Houston Press
, May 27, 2009,
www.houstonpress.com/2009-05-28/news/for-their-own-good/
.

129
  
“Little broad talking”
: See the First District Appellate Project, March 2004, p. 20,
www.fdap.org/downloads/news/CYA_Packet_3-04.doc
: “Some wards are forced to sleep in their underwear on concrete in cold rooms.” According to Solitary Watch, under California law, “attempted suicide for the purpose of manipulation” is explicitly named as a “Serious Rule Violation” that, for adult prisoners, can result in placement in the Secure Housing Unit—the equivalent of solitary (
solitarywatch.com/facts/faq/
).

130
  
“maintained a dark, cold solitary confinement room”
: Douglas E. Abrams, “Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment to Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability, and Public Safety,”
Oregon Law Review
84, no. 1001 (2005), University of Missouri–Columbia School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper no. 2006-14,
ssrn.com/abstract=904396
.

131
  
Other facilities restrict the diet
: Ian Kysel,
Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States
(New York: Human Rights Watch/American Civil Liberties Union, 2012),
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us1012ForUpload.pdf
.

131
  
Of the many names for solitary confinement
: Michael Jacobson, “Written Testimony,” Vera Institute of Justice, June 19, 2012,
www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/michael-jacobson-testimony-on-solitary-confinement-2012.pdf
.

131
  
“no-touch torture”
: Jean Casella and Curtis Ridgeway, “Unlock the Box: The Fight Against Solitary Confinement in New York,”
The Nation
, July 30–August 6, 2012,
www.thenation.com/article/170276/unlock-box-fight-against-solitary-confinement-new-york#
.

132
  
“absolute prohibition”
: “Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Note by the Secretary-General,” United Nations General Assembly, August 5, 2011,
solitaryconfinement.org/uploads/SpecRapTortureAug2011.pdf
.

132
  
United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty
: “United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty,” United Nations General Assembly, December 14, 1990. Section 67 of the rules states: “All disciplinary measures constituting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment shall be strictly prohibited, including corporal punishment, placement in a dark cell, closed or solitary confinement or any other punishment that may compromise the physical or mental health of the juvenile concerned” (
www.un.org/documents/ga/res/45/a45r113.htm
).

132
  
Young prisoners in America are routinely isolated
: Kysel,
Growing Up Locked Down
, p. 2.

132
  
A comprehensive national survey
: Richard A. Mendel,
No Place For Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration
(Baltimore, MD: Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2011),
www.aecf.org/OurWork/JuvenileJustice/~/media/Pubs/Topics/Juvenile%20Justice/Detention%20Reform/NoPlaceForKids/JJ_NoPlaceForKids_Full.pdf
.

132
  
“room confinement remains a standard procedure”
: Lindsey M. Hayes, “Characteristics of Juvenile Suicide in Confinement,” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, February 2009, p. 12,
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/214434.pdf
.

133
  
Youth in Ohio facilities spent an average of fifty hours
: Mendel,
No Place for Kids
, p. 8.

133
  
solitary confinement may actually be a growing problem
: According to the Ella
Baker Center for Human Rights, “Ten years ago at DJJ [Division of Juvenile Justice], 16–28 percent of youth were in solitary units, and the single hour of programming or exercise they received outside of their cells was in steel cages. In 2004, the average length of stay in isolation was 42 days. By 2007, with reform efforts well underway, that number had increased to 65 days. In 2010, one prison was reporting a 59-day average, with one youth spending 246 days in isolation. And in 2011, an internal audit revealed that youth continued to be isolated for 23 or 24 hours a day, with one youth receiving only one hour out of his cell over the course of 10 days.” Statement of Sumayyah Waheed and Jennifer Kim, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, “Reassessing Solitary Confinement: The Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences,” Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, June 19, 2012,
www.judiciary.senate.gov/resources/transcripts/upload/061912RecordSubmission-Durbin.pdf
.

133
  
“Incredibly, the practices from 10 years ago”
: Ibid. Another 2011 report, based on an internal audit, found that “juvenile inmates at California correctional facilities have been held in isolation nearly 24 hours straight on hundreds of occasions this year, in violation of state regulations.” James Ridgeway, “Kids Put in Solitary Confinement in California's Juvie Jails,”
Mother Jones
, June 16, 2011,
www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/06/kids-put-solitary-confinement-californias-juvie-jails/
.

133
  
In New York City, nearly 15 percent of adolescents
: Kysel,
Growing Up Locked Down
, p. 64.

133
  
“for transgressions as minor as eating a guard's food”
: Christie Thompson, “Solitary for Youth: The Fight in Illinois,”
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
, October 12, 2012,
jjie.org/solitary-for-youth-fight-illinois/96279
.

133
  
injured or sick youth housed in solitary
: Ibid.

133
  
A separate look at the Harrisburg facility
: Chris Bernard, “Executive Summary: Monitoring Visit to IYC-Harrisburg, March 23, 2011,” John Howard Association of Illinois, p. 1,
www.thejha.org/sites/default/files/IYC.Harrisburg.pdf
.

133
  
“were restrained, hit”
: Douglas E. Abrams, “Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment to Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability, and Public Safety,”
Oregon Law Review
84 (2005): 1032,
www.njjn.org/uploads/digital-library/resource_407.pdf
.

133
  
A survey undertaken at the Texas State facility
: Benet Magnuson and Jennifer Carreon, “Youth Experiences at Giddings State School: 2012 Survey Findings,” Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, March 2012, p. 8,
www.texascjc.org/sites/default/files/publications/Youth%20Experiences%20at%20Giddings%20(Mar%202012).pdf
.

133
  
In New Jersey, reports emerged in the 1990s
: “Bad Girls, Bad Prison,”
The Record
(Hackensack, NJ), February 20, 1994; “Jamesburg Reformatory Desperately Needs Reform,”
The Record
(Hackensack, NJ), March 6, 2004; “8 a.m. Riot Is Latest Explosion for Juvie Justice System,”
The Trentonian
, December 30, 2009; “Gang Members Riot at Jail for Boys,”
The Trentonian
, July 29, 2008; “11 Teens Accused in Attack at Detention Center,”
The Star-Ledger
(Newark, NJ), May 3, 2007; and Juvenile Law Center, “T.D. and O.S. v. Mickens et al.,”
www.jlc.org/legal-docket/td-and-os-v-mickens-et-al
.

134
  
All manner of international guidelines
: Kysel,
Growing Up Locked Down
, p. 73.

134
  
“the conditions that accompany solitary confinement”
: Ibid., p. 76.

134
  
some were locked in their cells for all but forty minutes
: Ridgeway, “Kids Put in Solitary Confinement.”

135
  
Solitary confinement is a standard response
: Lindsay M. Hayes, “Juvenile Suicide in Confinement: A National Survey,” National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, February 2004, p. 28,
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/206354.pdf
.

135
  
brief stretches of daily “recreation”
: “In CYA detention facilities, at any given time more than ten percent of wards are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. During the one hour per day they are permitted to leave their cells they are either shackled or caged. These lock-down units have inadequate lighting and temperature controls. . . . More than half of the wards on lock-down lack basic hygiene materials such as soap and toothpaste.” Summary of the Recent Expert Reports on CYA, General Corrections Review, p. 53, in First District Appellate Project, Filing a Petition for Modification Aimed at Getting a Section 602 Juvenile Court Ward Released from the California Youth Authority (Welf. & Inst. Code Section 778 and 779), March 2004.