|
Click here
for Parents United Together's Findings:
Abuse at Mississippi Training
Schools Oakley (Boys) and Columbia (Girls)
Operated under the direction of The Mississippi Department of Human
Services (MDHS).
Findings provided by:
Parents United Together
Parents United Together is a group
of parents of children with a wide range
of disabilities united on common issues: Education, Independent
Living, and
Equality for All.
ARTICLES, LAWSUITS, REPORTS:
June 19, 2003 -
Assistant Attorney Letter to Judge
finding conditions at Oakley and Columbia violate the constitutional
and statutory rights of juveniles
2004 - K.L.W.
v. James -
Columbia Training School Access to Legal
Assistance Case
May 4, 2005 -
US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
- Report abuse
July 19, 2006 -
$10M suit alleges rape at training school
Teenage girl says male employee assaulted her
June 13, 2007 -
EDITORIAL: Close Columbia
Training School
June 13, 2007 -
House committee explores accusations of abuse
at Columbia Training School
July 12, 2007 -
Lawsuit Filed Over Treatment of Girls at State
July 17, 2007 -
Mississippi sued in
Federal court over child abuse
November 7, 2007 -
Eating their own vomit
1996 to 2007 -
Parents United Together
Findings of aubse
Suicidal girls were
sometimes stripped naked and put
in isolation in a poorly ventilated dark room with
only a hole in the floor for a toilet.
Courtesy of
Parents United Together
Eating
Their Own Vomit
Maggie Burks, Jackson Free Press, November 7, 2007
Sprawled across a cold,
concrete slab in a tiny cell, H.D. carved “HATE ME” into her
forearm with a toenail clipping and toothpaste cap. The
bloody three-inch letters were dark and pronounced across
her skin, and the redness echoed the bruises on her ankles
from being shackled for more than three weeks by employees
at Columbia Training School. This particular night, H.D. was
on suicide watch, but Columbia staff members had left her
alone with the door locked, only intermittently peeking in
for a couple of seconds to see where she was located in the
cell.
This incident and a long
list of instances like it prompted a group of teenage girls
from Columbia Training School to sue a handful of Columbia
administrators and state officials including Gov. Haley
Barbour, Mississippi Department of Human Services Executive
Director Don Taylor and Columbia Administrator Donald
Armagost. The school is supposed to serve as a state-run
facility for reforming at-risk adolescents.
“Instead of providing the
individual plaintiffs with constitutionally required care
and rehabilitation, the defendants ignore well-established
law and act with deliberate indifference by subjecting the
girls to horrendous abuses such as prolonged, punitive
shackling and, in at least one case, a sexual assault,” the
lawsuit states.
The attorney general’s
office announced last week that the state would pursue a
dismissal of the lawsuit citing the plaintiffs’ lack of
standing and protection of state officials under the 11th
Amendment, among other reasons.
In June, Taylor announced
that his department was launching an investigation into the
allegations, which he said would conclude by the end of
June. Four months later, the investigation is still going
on, and DHS Deputy Administrator Richard Harris says that he
does not know when it will be completed.
“We are investigating
allegations that were made, and verifying and substantiating
fact,” Harris said. “We are still waiting for outcomes and
conclusions.” So far, the department has terminated one
employee and suspended three or four others, Harris said.
Mississippi Youth Justice
Project Attorney Sheila Bedi, who represents the girls, said
that Columbia no longer has qualified mental-health staff
and has begun busing suicidal girls, bound in shackles, 120
miles to Oakley Training School for medical evaluation.
Chairman of the House
Juvenile Justice Committee, Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg,
has been vocal about wanting Columbia to close its doors as
a “reform school.” He said Taylor told him about a month ago
that he would not release the report until the litigation
concluded. “He didn’t want to put it out in the public when
there’s litigation pending … and I respect his decision,”
Flaggs said.
The state filed a motion to
dismiss on Aug. 20, stating that the plaintiffs “failed to
state a claim upon which relief can be granted,” regarding a
request for “declaratory and injunctive relief for
inadequate mental health and rehabilitative treatment.”
“It’s a standard defense
tactic,” Bedi said. “The thing that’s interesting about it
is that they’ve got very smart lawyers, and instead of
having those lawyers work to ensure that the facilities are
compliant with federal law, they’re trying to escape
accountability.
In an Oct. 15 response to
the motion, Bedi stated that the defendants’ arguments
“reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the applicable
law.”
“We believe that the
violations here are so blatant that it would be very
difficult for a judge to find a reason to dismiss this
case,” Bedi said.
| The
list of offenses included denying students adequate
medical care, staff members forcing students to eat
their own vomit, hog-tying them and shackling them
to poles.
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The July lawsuit is not the
first to be brought against the state concerning Columbia
Training School. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice
filed a suit citing cruel and unusual punishment and chronic
neglect at Columbia and Oakley Training Schools.
The list of offenses
included denying students adequate medical care, staff
members forcing students to eat their own vomit, hog-tying
them and shackling them to poles. As part of the settlement,
the schools were brought under a consent decree, requiring
the juvenile justice system to clean up their act by 2009.
“The timetable is
incremental leading up to 2009, so that (we’re) at 100
percent by 2009,” Harris said.
| The
operation of Columbia Training School costs the
state $6 million a year for about 25 girls.
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The operation of Columbia
Training School costs the state $6 million a year for about
25 girls. Bedi said that she doesn’t understand how the
state can justify the expense.
“I understood that the
people operating this facility are fiscal conservatives, and
I just wonder how that expense can be justified,” Bedi said.
“I’m just not sure how, given all of the needs that we have
in this state, that the cost of $600 per child per day when
what we’re paying for is essentially state-sanctioned child
abuse, I don’t understand how that can be justified.”
|
Courtesy of
http://nospank.net/n-r37r.htm
Mississippi sued in Federal court over child
abuse
The Southern
Poverty Law Center, a human rights advocacy group, is suing the
State of Mississippi in federal court to stop physical and sexual
abuse of teenaged girls at its Columbia Training School.
The
Southern Poverty Law Center today
(July 11, 200&) sued the state of Mississippi in federal court to
stop the "horrendous" physical and sexual abuse of
teenage girls
at the Columbia Training School, the state's prison for
girls.
The suit, filed in
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, also
seeks to force the state to provide federally required mental health
and rehabilitative treatment to girls confined at Columbia.
The suit was filed
on behalf of six girls ranging in age from 13 to 17. All suffer from
mental illness and all were committed to Columbia for non-violent
offenses. Most are victims of past physical or sexual abuse.
"Our state must
stop sponsoring
child abuse," said Sheila Bedi,
director of the SPLC's Mississippi Youth Justice Project, based in
Jackson, Miss. "Girls at Columbia Training School not only are being
routinely abused, humiliated and injured, they are being denied the
most basic services that the law requires.
"We filed this
lawsuit reluctantly after several failed attempts to negotiate with
the state. We would much rather see the state's resources go toward
caring for our children than defending the indefensible."
Mississippi
Protection and Advocacy Inc., a congressionally authorized nonprofit
organization that enforces the civil rights of people with
disabilities, is also a plaintiff in the suit.
The lawsuit
alleges that:
In an apparent
response to unsubstantiated allegations that they planned to escape,
five of the plaintiffs were shackled for 12 hours a day for periods
ranging from eight days to approximately a month. They were required
to eat, attend school, use the bathroom, participate in
recreational activities and visit
with their families while wearing shackles around their ankles. This
punitive shackling, which violated Columbia policies, caused
excruciating pain and injuries, but their complaints were not
heeded.
One girl was
sexually assaulted by a male employee of the facility who kissed and
fondled her against her will while she was confined in a segregated
area. She reported the assault but was never informed of the results
of an investigation and never received counseling to help her deal
with the trauma.
Three of the girls
cut themselves while on suicide watch. None of them received any
psychological help during their isolation. No attempt was made to
stabilize their moods, and staff members failed to perform periodic
checks to ensure their safety. One girl was placed in a cell alone
for 14 hours, during which time she carved the words "HATE
ME" into her forearm. One sliced her wrists with glass,
and the other sliced her wrists on the edge of her concrete bunk.
The Columbia
Training School has a long history of abusing and failing to care
for children in its care. A U.S.
Department of Justice
(DOJ) investigation in 2003 revealed shocking conditions at
Columbia and Oakley Training School, which houses boys. The abuses
included pole-shackling, hog-tying with chains and physical assault
by guards. Children with disabilities were routinely denied the
mental health, educational and rehabilitative services to which they
were entitled.
The state settled a
DOJ lawsuit with
a consent decree
in 2005, but a court-appointed monitor has issued six
quarterly reports that document a long list of failures to comply
with the settlement. In the most recent report, the monitor noted
that reforms have stalled and expressed grave concerns about
inadequate health care and suicide prevention.
"It is clear that
the state of Mississippi has not taken the steps necessary to
transform the Columbia Training School into a facility that can help
troubled teenage girls turn their lives around and be productive
members of society," Bedi said.
Most of the girls
at Columbia suffer from mental disorders or disabilities. And more
than six in 10 were sent there for non-violent offenses such as
shoplifting, running away, disorderly conduct and other minor
offenses. Most could be treated far more effectively – at half the
cost – in community-based programs that focus on rehabilitation and
mental health treatment. The facility costs Mississippi some $5
million per year to house an average of 60 girls.
Co-counsels in the
case are Ira Burnim of the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for
Mental Health Law in Washington,
D.C., and Robert B. McDuff, a civil rights attorney in Jackson.
Lawsuit Filed Over Treatment of Girls at State
Reform School in Mississippi
July 12, 2007
By ADAM NOSSITER
Troubled adolescent girls at the
Columbia Training School, a state-run reform school, were shackled
for 12 hours a day and forced to eat and to use the bathroom while
wearing the shackles, according to a federal lawsuit filed here
Wednesday by five of the girls against Mississippi officials,
including Gov. Haley Barbour.
Another girl at the school was
sexually assaulted by a guard, and three of the shackled girls were
able to cut themselves even though they had been placed on suicide
watch, according to the suit, filed in Federal District Court by the
Mississippi Youth Justice Project.
Most of the 30-odd girls at the
school are being held for nonviolent offenses like drug possession
or shoplifting, and most suffer from a mental disorder.
Reports of what the lawsuit calls
''widespread abuse'' at the Columbia school and a similar
institution for boys, the Oakley school, are not new. In 1977 a
federal judge curtailed the use of isolation cells and pushed for
the hiring of doctors; five years ago the State Legislature found
numerous inadequacies; and four years ago the Justice Department
discovered that young offenders were being hogtied, shackled, choked
and beaten. The department sued Mississippi over those and other
abuses, and a settlement was reached in 2005.
But in a low-tax, low-spending state
where, advocates say, care for troubled young offenders is a low
public priority, abuses have persisted. At a legislative hearing
last month there was testimony about guards' making sexual
propositions to the girls, shackling and other problems. Meanwhile,
a recent report by a Justice Department official monitoring the
settlement found persistent deficiencies, particularly in protecting
the children from harm.
''When you look at adults who commit
crimes or children who get into trouble, there's not a lot of public
pressure on politicians to do the right thing,'' said Robert McDuff,
a veteran Mississippi civil rights lawyer who helped draft the
lawsuit. ''And unfortunately
the current administration has not paid the proper
attention to correcting these problems.''
The chairman of the juvenile
justice committee in the State House, Representative George Flaggs
Jr., a Vicksburg Democrat, said of the abuses mentioned in
Wednesday's lawsuit: ''It's indefensible, it's embarrassing to the
state of Mississippi, and it's unnecessary.
Shackles should never be used
unless they are being transported. It's clearly stupidity.''
Six workers at the school were
suspended by the Department of Human Services two weeks ago, and
raises have been announced for workers at the schools, though the
lowest-paid will still receive only slightly under $19,000. The
department declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed by a branch of
the Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Ala., paints a grim
picture of teenage girls subjected to systematic harsh treatment at
the school, a sprawling facility in Columbia, in the state's
southern pinelands, where inmates are confined for as long as
several months.
And despite the troubled mental
state of the girls, the school provided virtually nothing in the way
of counseling. The girls were shackled because they were suspected
of wanting to run away, according to the lawsuit, which said there
was ''absolutely no security or other penological or rehabilitative
justification for shackling of the girls.''
Still, they were made to wear the
restraints going to and from sleeping quarters, the cafeteria and
the medical clinic. Sometimes, the staff did not properly lock the
shackles, thus chafing the girls' ankles as they walked and causing
them ''excruciating pain,'' the suit says. Girls were also subjected
to sleep deprivation when the lights were left on in their sleeping
quarters, lawyers said.
One girl was sexually abused by a
guard who grabbed her inside the disciplinary cell in which she had
been placed. When she struggled, he left, according to the suit.
The girl, already traumatized by
sexual abuse at the hands of her father, never received any
counseling after the guard's assault, despite complaining about it.
Another troubled girl, put on suicide watch, was placed alone in a
cell ''for over 14 hours,'' and was not given mental health
counseling, the suit said.
Unmonitored, she was able to carve
the words ''hate me'' into her forearm. Another girl on suicide
watch, similarly neglected, was able to slice her wrists with glass,
it said.
''The lawsuit indicates that the
model of juvenile justice in Mississippi is a failed one, and these
resources are much better spent on programs proven to turn lives
around,'' said Sheila Bedi, a lawyer with the Youth Justice Project.
Mississippi's plans for dealing
with troubled youth have ''proven themselves failures over and
over,'' Ms. Bedi said, adding, ''State officials have been
deliberately indifferent to the rights of these children.''
Article
House committee explores
accusations of abuse at Columbia Training School
June 13, 2007
Jackson — Inmates at the state’s
only juvenile correctional facility for girls were subjected to
sexual propositions from male guards, long periods in restraints and
sporadic visits from mental health counselors, a legislative
committee heard Tuesday.
House Juvenile Justice Committee
Chairman Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, called a meeting of his
committee to explore allegations that eight girls at Columbia
Training School were restrained 11 hours a day for more than a week
after rumors circulated that some of them might try to escape.
One 16-year-old girl, whose
identity was withheld, told a packed room of lawmakers and child
advocates at the state Capitol that she was chained in leg shackles
from about 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for as many as 11 straight days.
The girls were forced to wear the
restraints to school, recreation, the cafeteria and church services,
she said. Some of the girls had minor injuries from the prolonged
use of shackles.
An angry Flaggs held up a pair of
the restraints when he scolded Department of Human Services
officials over the conditions at the 1,500-acre facility in
Columbia.
“You shackle a person in church?
What kind of psychological effect does that have on a child?” Flaggs
asked. “That’s torture. Hell, we treat the terrorists better than
that in this country.”
The young girl also testified that
some guards at Columbia asked girls to perform sexual acts and
provided them with their telephone numbers with hopes of making a
rendezvous once the teens were released.
“When we reported it, they just
shunned it off,” she said of DHS officials.
DHS Executive Director Don Taylor
was not present at Tuesday’s hearing.
Richard Harris, a DHS deputy
administrator, said the allegations are being investigated and two
officials at the school have been suspended with pay pending the
outcome of the probe. He said a report should be available in the
next five days.
“Abhorrent mistreatment of juvenile
offenders in our training schools is counter to department policy.
It is counter to the extensive training that has been provided to
our staff over the last several weeks and months,” Harris said. “We
do not and will not tolerate mistreatment of children.”
Harris was hesitant to say whether
the restraints were used improperly, but conceded that they likely
were, under questioning from Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville.
“Under the law, if this had been in
my house, and I had done this to my children, would I be charged
with child abuse?” Hines asked. “Yes or no?”
“Yes,” Harris said.
Columbia and the state’s facility
for troubled boys, Oakley Training School, have a dismal record when
it comes to abuse and neglect.
Mississippi entered an agreement in
May 2005 to end a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over
allegations of deplorable conditions at the facilities, including
accusations that some youngsters at Columbia were forced to eat
their own vomit and tossed nude into isolation cells.
As part for a four-year consent
decree between the state and Justice Department, a court monitor
oversees progress at the facilities. The latest report, released
last week, says conditions are improving but there are still
problems at the schools.
Lawmakers also expressed concern
Tuesday over the increasing costs of housing youngsters at the
facilities. Columbia houses 33 girls with a budget of nearly $5
million and Oakley has a budget of $10 million and houses 146 boys.
Flaggs and a paid consultant,
Timothy J. Roche, both suggested that shutting down Columbia might
be the only was to stop the problems there.
“What we have heard is
unquestionably, in my mind, abuse,” said Roche, who specializes in
juvenile corrections. “Columbia has demonstrated an inability to
keep girls safe.”
Members of the Council of Youth
Court Judges said the state needs facilities for youngsters who pose
a danger to the public, particularly violent offenders.
Adams County Youth Court Judge John
Hudson said progress has been made in Mississippi’s juvenile
correction system in recent years and he urged officials to abandon
desires to close the facility without first identifying where the
dangerous youth would be sent.
“It’s going to take more than two
years to change something that took 100 years to develop,” he said
of Mississippi’s juvenile justice system.
Flaggs had planned to visit
Columbia on Thursday, but said he will wait for DHS to issue a
report on the allegations of abuse.
EDITORIAL: Close Columbia Training School
By JFP Staff, Jackson free Press, June 13, 2007
This Tuesday, the
Juvenile Justice Committee of the Mississippi House of
Representatives heard testimony from families and experts
about abuse at Columbia Training School, where eight
girls were allegedly shackled at the ankles, some of them
for more than a week, because another student falsely
claimed they planned to escape. One former student also
reported that male staff members had solicited sexual favors
from girls at the school.
These incidents are
reminiscent of the outrageous abuse that brought the
training schools under a federal consent decree in 2005.
Before that decree, girls at Columbia were often hog-tied or
shackled to poles. Girls who were difficult or suicidal were
chained to a pole in the “Dark Room” and left naked, in
total isolation sometimes lasting days, with only a drain in
the floor for a bathroom. When the Department of Justice
investigated in 2003, they found that every level of care
for girls was deficient—from safety to education to medical
care.
Now, after two years of
reforms, it seems evident that little has changed.
The girls at Columbia are
not violent criminals—we send violent criminals to jail,
even if they are teenagers. Most girls are at Columbia for
non-violent offenses, and even the violent offenses tend to
be simple assault. Generally, we’re talking about girls who
got into fist fights at school.
Many of the girls at
Columbia suffer from mental illnesses that the school treats
erratically, if at all. Many have suffered both physical and
sexual abuse.
What does it do to a girl
who has been abused to be chained up like an animal by her
school?
This barbarity is
stupendously expensive. In 2006, Columbia employed 127 staff
to run a facility with an average population of 37 girls a
month at an annual cost of $5 million a year. That’s $600
per student, or $219,000 per student per year, according to
the committee. That figure does not include potential
lawsuits from students or the cost of litigation with the
federal government.
The solution is
straightforward: Close Columbia and transfer the girls there
to Oakley, which was built with a wing for girls. Turn
Columbia into a drug rehabilitation center, which would
qualify for federal funding. Use the $4 million the
Legislature has approved for community-based alternatives to
keep as many girls out of training school as possible.
Research shows that keeping children in their community is
both more effective and more economical.
Finally, it is time to
remove both training schools from the Department of Human
Services, which has failed dismally to reform the schools.
A “school” as broken as
Columbia should be closed, for everyone’s sake.
|
Courtesy of
www.nospank.net
$10M suit alleges rape at
training school Teenage girl says male employee assaulted her
July 19, 2006
By Jimmie E. Gates
jgates@clarionledger.com
A federal lawsuit seeking $10
million in damages alleges a male employee of Columbia Training
School sexually assaulted a then 14-year-old female student multiple
times last August.
The employee, identified as John
Doe No. 1, began making sexual advances toward the girl in July
2005, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court
in Jackson.
The girl was taken to a different
part of the Columbia campus in August for being disobedient,
according to the suit. John Doe No. 1 transported the girl and she
was left alone with the employee and no female supervision,
according to court documents.
"During the night, the employee
entered the girl's room and sexually assaulted her. He then left the
room (and) locked her inside until the following morning," according
to court documents.
The suit alleges the employee
continued to engage in sexual acts with the girl throughout her time
at Columbia.
The suit is the latest in a series
of legal problems at the state's two training schools. The schools
serve a total of 550 youthful offenders - boys ages 10 to 17 at
Oakley in Hinds County and girls 10 to 18 at Columbia.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the
girl by her mother, seeks $5 million each in punitive and
compensatory damages from Columbia, school administrator L. Donald
Armagost, the Department of Human Services, which oversees the
schools, DHS Executive Director Don Taylor, DHS Youth Services
Director Kathy Pittman and unnamed DHS employees.
"The only allegation (of rape) I
know of was investigated thoroughly by our office and the state
attorney general," said Taylor, who was out of the state. He said he
had not seen the lawsuit.
The girl reported being sexually
assaulted to staffers at Columbia, but they made no attempt to
formally investigate her claims, according to the lawsuit.
"It was a tragic, avoidable
situation," her attorney Kenneth Miller of Ridgeland said. Miller
wouldn't say why the employee wasn't named in the lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued
Mississippi in 2003 over conditions at Columbia and Oakley.
Last year, the state admitted
wrongdoing and entered into a four-year consent decree to make
changes at the training schools. Under the agreement, a private
monitor oversees Columbia and Oakley. The monitor's report released
in March cited numerous civil rights violations.
In May, the schools released dozens
of offenders early because of staffing problems. The unsafe ratio of
students to staffers was blamed for 50 student assaults on staffers,
125 fights and three escapes since October.
"The defendants acting individually
and together, under color of law, engaged in a course of conduct,
which permitted John Doe No. 1 to prey upon plaintiff ... by using
threats, rewards and other means necessary to initiate and continue
having sexual relations with plaintiff," the lawsuit said.
"The course of conduct amounted to
a state created danger and/or special relationship which threatened
to and in fact did result in the abuse and molestation of
plaintiff."
REPORT
Find original report at
Parents United Together
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Excerpts from CRIP Investigation
Complete Report
Girls are punished in the military field
by being forced to run with automobile
tires around their bodies or carrying
logs.
Girls reported being forced to eat their
own vomit if they threw-up while
exercising in the hot sun.
Unconstitutional abusive disciplinary
practices such as hog-tying,
pole-shackling, improper use and overuse
of restraints and isolation, staff
assaulting youth, and OC/pepper spray
abuse.
Youth who are re-committed are taken to
one of the isolation rooms in the intake
area and punched and slapped by staff as
punishment for being re-committed.
More Excerpts
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July 29, 1999
Mallery v. Taylor, 805 So. 2d 613
(Miss. App. 2002)
Were officials and staff at Oakley
Training Center & The MS Department
of Human services responsible for
the death of 15 year old Henry
Shumpert? "On December 30, 1996,
at 2:00 a.m. Lucas was called to
Shumpert's quarters. Shumpert was in
respiratory distress and had blood
coming from his mouth. Lucas
requested an ambulance and found
that one had already been called.
Lucas attempted to clear Shumpert's
airway and assisted the paramedics.
Shumpert was transported to
Methodist Hospital and was
pronounced dead later that morning."
Note--Lucas was or is a nurse on
staff at Oakley.
2002
 Fiscal
Year 2002 Activities Under the Civil
Rights of Institutionalized Persons
Act
May 14, 2002
Joint Legislative Committee on
Performance
Evaluation and Expenditure Review
(PEER)
Report to
the Mississippi Legislature
This report does not recommend
increased funding or additional
staff.
June
19, 2003
MISSISSIPI
GULAG
Report by Ralph F. Boyd, Jr.,
Assistant U. S. Attorney General
submitted to Mississippi Governor
Ronnie Musgrove
July 15-2003
Abuse
cited at youth training centers
Rights violated, Justice Dept. says
A 13-year-old boy under suicide
watch at Columbia Training School
reported he was hogtied face-down
with his hands and feet shackled
together.
Suicidal girls at Columbia said they
were stripped naked and were placed
in a dark room for as long as three
days to a week with only a hole in
the floor as a bathroom.
Complete
Article...When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
July 15-2003
Training Schools Under Fire For
Alleged 'Horror Story' Conditions
DHS, Justice Department Officials
Meet To Discuss Resolution
JACKSON, Miss. -- Congressman Bennie
Thompson said state agencies
monitoring the state's juvenile
correctional facilities, or
"training schools," are not doing
their jobs.
The federal government has cited
Oakley Training School in Hinds
County and the Columbia Training
School in Marion County for serious
violations.
Representatives from the Justice
Department were in Jackson Tuesday
to investigate claims that some
young people at the facilities were
being hog-tied and forced to eat
their own vomit.
Workers erected a fence around the
Oakley Training School Tuesday
afternoon, but 16 WAPT cameras still
caught images of a dirty swimming
pool that appeared to support
allegations of health code
violations and poor living
conditions.
Complete
Article...
July 16-2003
DHS:
Center officials moved prior to
report
Three administrators reassigned days
before abuse findings released
The Mississippi Department of Human
Services reassigned the three top
administrators at the state's
juvenile training centers last week,
days before the release of a federal
report detailing abusive and
unsanitary conditions at the
facilities.
The department would not name the
administrators, but a U.S.
Department of Justice letter
identified two as Nanolla Yasdani as
the head of Oakley Training School
in Raymond and Michael Morris as the
administrator at Columbia Training
School. The third administrator, who
was over Ironwood, a maximum
security unit at Oakley, wasn't
named in the report. The DHS Web
site lists Richard Gray as
administrator of the unit.
Complete
Article...When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
July 17-2003
More funds sought to alleviate
training school woes
The Mississippi Department of Human
Services could receive a boost in
funds when the Legislature convenes
next year to help resolve problems
at the state's two juvenile
detention centers, House Juvenile
Justice Committee Chairman George
Flaggs said today.
Complete
Article...When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
July 17-2003
Lawmaker: Juvenile sites underfunded
Blame for training center problems
must be shared, Flaggs says
The Mississippi Legislature should
share the blame for some of the
problems at the state's two juvenile
training centers, the state House
Juvenile Justice Committee Chairman
George Flaggs said Wednesday.
Abuse, inadequate medical care and
unsanitary conditions at the
Columbia and Oakley training schools
were cited in a recent U.S.
Department of Justice report.
Justice Department officials
investigated the centers last year
at the request of 2nd District U.S.
Rep. Bennie Thompson.
Complete
Article….When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
July 17-2003
TORTURE: Who's guarding the
guardians?
Horror stories, all too many.
Something reminiscent of a chapter
stolen from George Orwell's horror
novel, "1984," or of an Iraqi prison
during the reign of Saddam Hussein.
Something that seems far from
America, far from Mississippi.
Something that wouldn't happen here,
even in our worst nightmares.
Complete
Article….
July 18-2003
Training schools
Politics of abuse is beside the
point
The "blame game" under way
regarding U.S. Justice Department
findings of abuse and neglect at the
Oakley and Columbia training schools
is glossing deeper concerns.
There is apparently more than enough
blame to go around.
The federal government shouldn't
have to tell Mississippi to maintain
humane standards in state reform
schools. That said, the task now is
to protect these children from any
such future abuses or neglect.
Complete
Article…..
July 23-2003
Lawmakers tour facilities
where abuse cited by Justice Dept.
RAYMOND -- New medical clinics
are in the works at two juvenile
training schools that federal
officials say have failed to provide
quality health care, education and
sanitary living conditions.
The Justice Department is now
working with state officials to fix
the problems, which could lead to a
federal lawsuit if not resolved.
The Columbia tour included the "dark
room," which officials say has not
been used for months.
Complete
Article…When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
July 23-2003
Training schools 'garbage dumps'
I am
outraged at the condition of our
state's juvenile training centers
("Abuse cited at youth training
centers," July 15). Regardless of
the blame being passed around, both
appear to be garbage dumps for young
lives that have been entrusted to
the state of Mississippi.
Complete
Article
July 24-2003
Musgrove must fix deficiencies for
juveniles
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove stopped by
the other day, singing all the high
chords on the virtues of education.
He invoked the memory of his mother,
someone who implored him to use
education as his ticket to
prosperity. He preached about his
career-long commitment to making
education funding the state's
priority.
He also shared about education's
role in crime prevention, in keeping
youth focused and within the law and
our crucial responsibility to
provide our children "hope in real
jobs."
The governor's and the Legislature's
commitment to learning and
development has not extended to some
troubled youths, particularly those
at Oakley Training School and
Columbia Training School.
Complete
Article…..When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
July 28-2003
Fewer youths bound for 2 training
schools
Staffing shortages, funding
shortfalls cited in referee's
decision
The head of a state Youth Court
judges group says he'll send only
limited numbers of juveniles to the
state's two training schools, but
not because of a federal
investigation that found allegations
as serious as youths being hogtied.
Complete
Article…..When
you reach this page you must scroll
down to view areticle.
August
12-2003
Reports on life in prison come
and go
Public is aghast at conditions
only momentarily
By Charlie Mitchell
post@vicksburg.com
So far this summer, the top people
at Oakley Training School near
Raymond in Hinds County and Columbia
Training School in Marion County
have been told to clean out their
offices and hit the door.
This happens. Every once in a while
people on the outside get a glimpse
of what those whose actions have
landed them on the inside endure.
And a spurt of righteous indignation
follows, given that we're a society
that doesn't deal well with letting
others throw their lives away.
We'd like for people who stray
outside society's bounds to stop and
clean up their acts.
But they won't.
And when we get a peek at the
conditions under which they are
confined, we are aghast for a couple
of hours, perhaps a day.
Complete
Article…..
November 20-2003
State looks for cause behind
crime
State juvenile delinquency experts
are learning a key truth:
What works to set boys on the
straight and narrow won't
necessarily work for girls.
The state training schools, when
they were built years ago, were
designed
primarily with boys in mind because
girls were not committing much
crime, Adams said.
Complete
Article…..
December 18-2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The
Justice Department filed suit
Thursday against the state of
Mississippi for failing to end what
federal officials call "disturbing"
abuse of juveniles and
"unconscionable" conditions at two
state-run facilities.
Although the conditions at the
Mississippi institutions are among
the worst civil rights attorneys
have found, similar facilities in
many other states are troubled, the
officials said.
Current investigations into juvenile
justice facilities involve federal
probes in Arizona, California,
Maryland, Michigan, Nevada and South
Dakota, officials said.
Complete
Article…..
#703: 12-18-03
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES LAWSUIT
CHALLENGING
...
#704: 12-18-03
STATEMENT BY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY
GENERAL FOR CIVIL
...
Memorandum of
Agreement Between the U.S. and the
State of
Mississippi
December 19-2003
Suit filed over youth centers
Federal officials filed the
lawsuit in U.S. District Court in
Jackson after they were unable to
reach a deal with state officials
over how to improve the conditions.
The children in the two schools,
ages 10 to 18, were routinely hit,
shackled to poles, sprayed with
pepper spray while in restraints,
and hog-tied in a cell known as the
"dark room," the Justice Department
said. The federal investigation also
determined that staff at both
facilities sometimes punished girls
overcome by heat by forcing them to
eat their own vomit, said Alexander
Acosta, assistant U.S. attorney for
civil rights.
"The conditions at Oakley and
Columbia are unconscionable," Acosta
said.
Complete
Article…..
December 19-2003
Feds Sue State For Alleged Abuse
At Training Schools
Brothers Shocked By
Conditions At Oakley
"The state of Mississippi has not,
in our opinion, taken action to
remedy the situation in
Mississippi," said Assistant
Attorney General Alexander Acosta.
Two brothers who spent time at
Oakley School said Friday that they
were shocked at how they were
treated.
The brothers, who did not want to be
identified, said that while at
Oakley, they were beaten, sprayed
with Mace and made to sleep on a
cold concrete slab with no mattress.
Complete
Article…..
December 20, 2003
Judge says he'll send offenders to
schools
"I can readily say that I have no
reluctance to sending a child to a
training school that the law
requires to be there," Tom Storey,
head of the state Council of Youth
Court Judges, said Friday.
Attorney General Mike Moore said he
recommended to the joint legislative
budget committee earlier this year
to discontinue the outdated training
school system and expand Adolescent
Offender Programs, or AOPs.
"It's not working," Moore said
recently of the training school
system.
Complete
Article……
December 20, 2003
Training schools
State should settle issues with feds
The U.S. Justice Department should
not have sued Mississippi over
conditions at Oakley and Columbia
training schools, but now that it
has, the state should settle.
Moore said, we can expect negative
publicity pounding Mississippi
again, nationally.
It's not totally unearned. The
abuses found by Justice at Oakley
and Columbia -- including hogtying
boys at the male-only Oakley school
and locking girls in darkened rooms
at the co-ed Columbia for days --
were inexcusable.
Complete
Article……
January 8, 2004
Lawmakers should focus on
training schools
The brightest target for citizens
frustrated with crime has always
been law enforcement.
These ladies and gentlemen,
especially police officers, are
sworn to protect and serve as well
as to investigate and solve a bevy
of cases.
Still, a lawsuit the federal
government filed last month
illustrates that others, including
state lawmakers, have a pivotal role
in the crime equation. A big part of
that responsibility is being
ignored.
Complete
Article……
Jan. 22, 2004
Lawmaker Advocates Closing
Training Schools If Lawsuit Isn't
Resolved
A key lawmaker says he would
recommend closing Mississippi's two
training schools if an agreement
isn't reached in a federal lawsuit
filed against the state.
If we cannot reach a settlement,
I've come to the conclusion that it
would be in the best interest of the
state of Mississippi and its
children to just shut them down,''
Rep. George Flaggs, House Juvenile
Justice Committee chairman, said
Thursday.
However, Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, added
he's hopeful the case can be
resolved.
Complete
Article…..
March 12, 2004
March 12, 2004
State seeks help in U.S. suit
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson withholds
help in settlement
Federal officials may discuss
settling a potentially costly
lawsuit against Mississippi over
mental and physical abuse of
juveniles in its training schools if
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is
involved, a state lawmaker said.
But the 2nd District congressman,
who initiated the investigation into
the schools, said he has no plans to
intervene.
"Mississippi had plenty of time to
get its act together and didn't,"
Thompson said. "You're asking people
to trust an entity that has not
demonstrated any care or concern
about children
Complete
Article…..
January 20, 2005
Committee Passes Juvenile Justice
Reform Bill
JACKSON, Miss. - A bill that
aims to overhaul the state's system
for handling youthful offenders
overcame its first hurdle on
Thursday, but not without
opposition.
The bill, introduced by Juvenile
Justice Committee Chairman George
Flaggs Jr., would remove oversight
of the state's training schools from
the Department of Human Services and
create a separate Department of
Juvenile Justice to take over the
responsibility.
Complete
Article……
June 2005
Center staff named 'Heroes'
for juvenile justice efforts
JACKSON, Miss. -- Center
staff Sheila Bedi
and Ellen Reddy,
whose exhaustive work with the
Mississippi Coalition to Prevent
Schoolhouse to Jailhouse contributed
to an overhaul of the state's brutal
juvenile justice system, were
recently named two of Mississippi's
"Heroes for Children."
Complete
Article
July 11, 2005
Natchez AOP ahead of the pack
By JULIE FINLEY
The Natchez Democrat
NATCHEZ - Supervisors in the
Adams County juvenile justice system
can now sit back and watch their
success spread through the state.
Under the Juvenile Justice Reform
Act, which went into effect July 1,
Mississippi counties will handle
their troubled youth differently.
Complete
Article
...
January 1, 2006
Read the First
Monitor's Report …
March 22, 2006
Read the
Second Monitor's Report
…
April 16, 2006
Meridian Star - Juvenile center
frozen in time
Judge Coleman says changes don't
rank high on county budget priority
list
By
Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN -- In the early 1970s,
Lauderdale County Youth Court Judge
H.C. Watkins envisioned a home for
juvenile offenders that would
provide a nurturing environment and
teach minors about the dangers of
drugs and crime.
The juvenile detention center that
bears his name was one of its kind
in Mississippi. It opened in July
1975.
More than 30 years later, the center
looks as if it has been frozen in
time. The decor, paint, chairs in
the waiting room and even the
refrigerator in the employee break
room have not changed
Complete
Article……
April 17, 2006
Youth offenders bill signed into
law
A bill signed into law Friday
gives juvenile offenders a chance to
avoid training schools, said the
bill's author, Rep. George Flaggs of
Vicksburg.
"I am highly honored that the
Legislature saw fit to pass this,
which is based on my 19 years of
experience in the juvenile justice
system," said Flaggs, a youth
counselor in the Warren County
Juvenile Court.
Complete
Article……
July
19, 2006
$10M suit alleges rape at
training school
Teenage girl says male employee
assaulted her
A federal lawsuit seeking
$10 million in damages alleges a
male employee of Columbia Training
School sexually assaulted a then
14-year-old female student multiple
times last August.
The
employee, identified as John Doe No.
1, began making sexual advances
toward the girl in July 2005,
according to the lawsuit filed
Tuesday in U.S. District Court in
Jackson.
July 17, 2006
Read the Third
Monitor's Report
…
July
21, 2006
Youth-services staffers in 2
Miss. training schools fired
Report shows state fails to
meet term
The head of the state
welfare agency says the department
has fired dozens of youth-services
staffers at Mississippi's two
training schools over the past year,
and those remaining are being
trained to deal with children.
The developments come
as a court monitor says in a recent
report that the state has failed to
meet most of the terms of an
agreement that ended a U.S.
Department of Justice lawsuit over
conditions at Oakley and Columbia
training schools. Justice officials
stepped in because of reports of
violence and inadequate mental and
medical health.
November 15, 2006
Read the
Fourth Monitor's Report
March 15, 2007
Read the Fifth
Monitor's Report
June 01, 2007
8 girls reported shackled at
Columbia
The state Department of Human
Services is investigating
allegations that eight teenage girls
at Columbia Training School were
placed in leg shackles as
punishment.
DHS Executive Director Don Taylor
said in a statement that
“administrators in charge during the
time of the alleged incident” were
suspended with pay.
Agency spokeswoman Julia Bryan said
no further information would be
released.
If the allegations are true, Taylor
said the state may need to consider
closing the Columbia and Oakley
training facilities.
Source:
Claron Ledger
June 02, 2007
Columbia juvenile school
incident being investigated, says
MDHS
Associated Press
COLUMBIA — The Mississippi
Department of Human Services is
investigating allegations that eight
girls at the Columbia Training
School, who threatened to escape,
were shackled as a “prevention
measure,” according to executive
director Don Taylor.
Complete
Article...
June 05, 2007
Girls Shackled, Abused at
Columbia
by Brian Johnson
Eight adolescent girls were
shackled, some of them for more than
a week, at Columbia Training School
because another student said they
planned to escape. The girls
suffered bruises from tripping in
the shackles, along with blisters
and cuts to their feet and ankles.
Complete
Article...
June 08, 2007
Judge opposes school's
closing
Repercussions from problems swirling
around the Columbia Training School
could impact Forrest County for the
worse, officials said Thursday.
Youth Court Judge Michael McPhail
brought his concerns to the Forrest
County Board of Supervisors during
their regular meeting, warning that
closing the school - which the state
Department of Human Services has
said is an option - could threaten
county budgets and overwhelm
existing facilities.
Complete
Article...
June
12, 2007
Parents, student speak out
about alleged training school abuse
Allegations of abuse at
Columbia Training School were
recounted for state representatives
today as a committee tried to learn
more about daily operations at the
school.
Within a week, the Department of
Human Services will complete an
investigation into accusations that
eight girls were placed in leg
shackles for several weeks to keep
them from escaping the facility.
Attorneys for some of the girls have
said they never threatened to leave.
Complete
Article...
June
13, 2007
Officials investigate abuse
claims
Training school inmates
accuse guards of sexual, physical
misconduct
JACKSON, Miss. -- Inmates at the
state's only juvenile correctional
facility for girls were subjected to
sexual propositions from male
guards, long periods in restraints
and sporadic visits from mental
health counselors, a legislative
committee heard Tuesday.
Complete
Article..
June
26, 2007
Training school
workers suspended
DHS, federal officials investigating
alleged abuse of teenage girls
Six Columbia Training School
employees have been suspended with
pay pending an investigation into
allegations of shackling girls,
requesting sexual favors and other
abuses, Department of Human Services
director Don Taylor said Monday.
Complete
Article...
June 28, 2007
Six suspended at Columbia school
after shackling incident
Six workers at the Columbia Training
School have been suspended with pay
as state welfare officials
investigate allegations that girls
were shackled as punishment
Complete
Article..
July
1, 2007
Jackson rally urges closure
of Columbia
By Nicklaus Lovelady
Nearly 100 people from across
Mississippi gathered Saturday in
Jackson to draw attention to
allegations of abuse at Columbia
Training School and call for its
closure.
From Biloxi to Greenville, former
training school residents and their
families attended the "Singing the
Blues of Columbia Training School"
event at 930 Blues Cafe.
Complete
Article...
July
8, 2007
Read the Sixth
Monitor's Report
July 8, 2007
Problems plague school
By SUSAN LAKES
COLUMBIA - Jingle car keys near some
16-year-olds' ears, and you might
get them thinking about cars and
driving privileges and all the
things associated
with freedom.
But that same metal-to-metal
clinking noise brings flashbacks to
one teenager
who recently was released from the
troubled Columbia Training School
Complete
Article....
July 9, 2007
State
continuing its probe of abuse claims
at training schools State
investigating allegations at
Columbia facility
By Susan Lakes
Hattiesburg American
A teenager recently
released from the troubled Columbia
Training School says she was part of
a chain gang, forced to wear
restraints for long periods of time.
"I had to wear leg shackles most of
May," she said in a phone interview.
The teenager, was interviewed by
phone and was accompanied by Sheila
Bedi, attorney for the Mississippi
Youth Justice Project.
Complete
Article...
June 11, 2007
Letter from MS
Youth Justice Project to MS Dept of
Human Services
Eight girls
committed to Columbia, all of whom
are young girls living with mental
illness, and most of whom are
victims of past physical or sexual
abuse, were shackled for about
twelve hours a day for time periods
ranging from one month to one week.
July 11, 2007
Group sues
state over Columbia Training School
Mississippi leaders
are being sued over allegations of
abuse at Columbia Training School,
where some girls say they were
shackled and asked for sexual
favors.
At a news conference today,
officials with the Mississippi Youth
Justice Project announced they are
suing the state in federal court on
behalf of six teenage girls.
Complete
Article...
July 12, 2007
Lawsuit Filed Over Treatment
of Girls at State Reform School in
Mississippi
By
ADAM NOSSITER
JACKSON, Miss., July 11 — Troubled
adolescent girls at the Columbia
Training School, a state-run reform
school, were shackled for 12 hours a
day and forced to eat and to use the
bathroom while wearing the shackles,
according to a federal lawsuit filed
here Wednesday by five of the girls
against
Mississippi
officials, including Gov.
Haley Barbour.
Complete
Article....
July
12, 2007
Group alleging abuse sues
training school
Advocacy group wants counseling,
monetary damages for teen girls
The Mississippi Youth Justice
Project had asked for counseling for
girls sent to the school, monetary
damages and "assurances that no
other girls would suffer the same
fate as our clients," group
spokeswoman Sheila Bedi said. Bedi
said the suit could have been
avoided if the state had negotiated.
Complete
Article....
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LAWSUIT:
K.L.W. v.
James
Columbia Training School Access to
Legal Assistance Case
AGENDA AREA: Juvenile Justice
Case Number: 2:04-CV-149BN
Court where filed:
U.S. District Court, Southern District of
Mississippi
Date filed:
04/13/2004
Status: Settled
Case documents:
Brief -
Preliminary injunction brief, 4-13-04;
Complaint -
Complaint 4-13-04
Plaintiffs: K.L.W., a minor child, on behalf of all current
and future residents of Columbia Training School
Defendants: Richard James, acting administrator of
Columbia Training School; Donald Taylor, executive director of the
Mississippi Department of Human Services; Kathy Pittman, director of
the Division of Youth Services
Co-Counsel: Mississippi Center for Justice (http://www.mscenterforjustice.org/)
Date(s) of Disposition: 01/12/2005: Settlement
agreement signed and filed
Ensuring minors' access to legal assistance
On January 12, 2005, a settlement agreement was signed in K.L.W.
v. James, a class action filed by the Southern Poverty Law
Center and the
Mississippi Center for Justice to
protect children at one of the worst juvenile prisons in the
country. The settlement will guarantee that incarcerated children
have meaningful access to the court system, and may lead to other
litigation designed to improve conditions.
Under the U.S. Constitution, a
state must facilitate the rights of incarcerated children to access
to the courts. At Columbia Training School in Mississippi, the State
had instead created a series of obstacles designed to impede that
access. In K.L.W. v. James, Center attorneys filed a class
action to challenge those obstacles as violations of children's
constitutional rights to access the courts.
A
recent investigation (PDF) by the
U.S. Department of Justice found rampant abuse and neglect at both
Columbia and Oakley Training School, Mississippi's other juvenile
prison. A high-level DOJ official later described Mississippi's
juvenile prisons as "clearly the worst two we have seen in probably
20 years."
The DOJ found particularly horrific
mistreatment at Columbia, including hog-tying, pole-shackling, and
use of mace, practices being addressed in a related case,
Morgan v. Sproat. Suicidal youth
were sometimes stripped naked and locked in the "Dark Room" — a room
with no toilet, ventilation, or lights — for days on end.
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