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Sunday, October 16, 2005
Ind. Gov't. - First of 3-part series on juvenile facility problems
The South Bend Tribune today has published the first of a 3-part series by Nancy J. Sulok on the problems the Department of Justice has found in Indiana's juvenile prisons. An accompanying story from the AP lists the minimum improvements "needed by the South Bend and Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facilities and the Logansport Juvenile Intake/Diagnostic Facility to bring them into compliance with the 1997 Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, as identified by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department in Sept. 9 letters to Gov. Mitch Daniels." Some quotes from Sulok's story:
The U.S. Department of Justice recently released a scathing report on the South Bend facility, in the northwest part of South Bend at 4650 Old Cleveland Road.Some background may be found in this ILB entry from 10/14/05.Similar critical reports released at the same time address problems at the Logansport Juvenile Intake/Diagnostic Facility and the Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility.
The three facilities are among eight juvenile prisons operated by the Indiana Department of Correction. Delinquent youths can be sent to any facility in the state, not necessarily to the one closest to their homes.
A DOJ team visited the Logansport facility May 10 and 11, 2004; the South Bend facility May 12 through 14, 2004; and the Plainfield facility June 8 through 11 and again on June 30 through July 2, 2004.
But it did not report its findings until last month, in letters dated Sept. 9 and sent to Gov. Mitch Daniels. The letters became public last week.
The DOJ concluded that the problems were so bad they violated the basic civil rights of the teen inmates by not protecting them from physical and sexual assaults.
The most significant problem reported at Logansport, however, involved mental health care.
In fact, the DOJ said, "We find that the mental health care at Logansport is so egregious that it violates even the most stringent Eighth Amendment standard." The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the use of cruel and unusual punishment.
The most serious problem during the intake process is the policy to take youths off of the medications they had been taking to control their mental disorders.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 16, 2005 01:13 PM
Posted to Indiana Government