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Problems plague school
July 8, 2007
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.
"I had to wear leg shackles most of
May," she said in a phone interview.
The teenager, whose identity is
being withheld because of her age, was interviewed by phone and was
accompanied by Sheila Bedi, attorney for the Mississippi Youth
Justice Project.
She's one of eight girls at the
center of a state investigation into allegations of shackling and
other reports of abuse at the 200-acre campus located in Columbia,
which houses 33 girls.
She said she and other girls at the
school had to wear shackles 12 hours a day for most of May because
school authorities thought they were going to try to escape. She
said that she was also forced to sleep in the nude on concrete.
Shackling is a clear violation of
federal law when used long term and for punishment, Bedi said.
"Chain gang" is how others referred
to the teens who wore the leg cuffs.
"We accepted it that we were the
chain gang," said the teenager, who was sent to the training school
for violating her probation by missing an appointment with a
psychologist. She originally got in trouble for running away or
leaving home without permission.
She said the shackles marked and
bruised her ankles. To prevent the pain, she said, she wore extra
socks.
Bedi said the facility should have
tried to use less restrictive measures if staff suspected the girls
of trying to escape.
Past problems
Mississippi entered an agreement in
May 2005 to end a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over
allegations of deplorable conditions at the state-run juvenile
offender facilities at Columbia and Oakley Training School in Hinds
County. The schools are for juveniles ages 10 to 18 who have
committed minor infractions such as truancy, shoplifting and simple
assault.
Among the allegations cited in
court documents was that some youngsters at Columbia were forced to
eat their own vomit and tossed nude into isolation cells. Also, an
investigation by a state House of Representatives committee unveiled
accusations that male guards at Columbia sought sexual favors from
girls and gave girls cigarettes.
Six guards have been suspended with
pay pending investigation
As part for a four-year consent
decree between the state and Justice Department, a court monitor
oversees progress at the two training schools. The latest report,
released in June, says conditions are improving but there are still
problems at the schools, including:
Staffing shortages.
Juveniles are subjected to physical
abuse for failing to use "sir" to address staff.
The Columbia school exposes girls
to sexual violence, racism and other conditions that prevent
rehabilitation.
The facilities need to improve
suicide prevention efforts.
Children with disabilities do not
receive proper care. Don Taylor, director of the state Department of
Human Services that is responsible for the training schools, did not
return phone calls for comment.
Call for closure
The Mississippi Youth Justice
Project said the Columbia school should be shut down.
"It's not serving the girls well.
Most of them have severe mental health issues," said Jamie
Wazenkewitz, a community organizing intern for Mississippi Youth
Justice Project.
Wazenkewitz and co-worker Lara Law
said the state could save money and show better results by offering
community-based alternative programs rather than training school
incarceration.
"As it stands, Columbia (training
school) is making children worse. They are coming out angrier. They
are being abused within the system," Law said. "We need to be
redirecting the funding toward them and their communities and
families, and really figure out why they are acting out and being
sent to places like Columbia."
The state pays $600 per day for
each offender housed at Columbia. Law estimates a $30-a-day rate for
a community-based alternative program that would include mental
health and substance abuse treatment, tutoring and mentoring
components.
Judges' support
The Council of Youth Court Judges,
a statewide organization, disagrees with calls for closing the
training schools.
The group, in a letter to the state
Department of Human Services and legislators, said the training
schools must remain open but the state must improve the care
provided to juveniles in its custody.
The state also must provide
adequate resources to rehabilitate juveniles "whose delinquent
behavior cannot be adequately addressed in community-based settings
and to hold those juveniles in such settings long enough to effect
real change."
Forrest County Youth Court Judge
Michael McPhail is among the judges opposed to closing the training
schools.
"If they close, there is nothing
out there that has been completely developed to take on these kids,"
he said.
McPhail recently told Forrest
County supervisors that the county would see higher costs if it has
to be responsible for the juvenile offenders.
"We would have to look at how we
handle the more serious and chronic violent juvenile offenders,"
McPhail said. "We would certainly be looking at holding more kids in
the local detention center ... and that would mean comingling groups
that do not need to be comingled."
The Clarion-Ledger contributed to
this report.
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