The Arkansas Department of Human
Services has fired one employee, and disciplined four others, as
part of an ongoing internal investigation into the death of a
juvenile at the Alexander Youth Services Center. Early on May
13, 2001 a juvenile was found dead in his room at the serious
offender program building on the Alexander, Arkansas campus. The
program is operated by the DHS Division of Youth Services.
An Arkansas State Police
investigation of the incident continues. The DHS probe centers on
how staff handled the incident and the events leading up to it,
while the state police look at the death itself
On May 20, 2001 the department
cited three key policy violations as the reason for the employee
termination. They are as follows
· Falsification of written or oral information
· Use of threatening of abusive language or
actions
· Inattention to work assignments
As a result of this investigation
the department will remove the coverings on fire sprinkler outlets
in the facility and repair the video surveillance system that was
not operating at the time of the incident.
The terminated employee, Eugene
Girley, was a Youth Services Worker who had received more than I 00
hours of training during his more than one year working for the
department.
Disciplined employees include two
managers, and a security staff employee, who had not made the
division aware that the videotape system was not working. The fourth
disciplined employee is a Youth Service Worker who did not report an
earlier altercation between Girley and a juvenile. (See attached for
details on four disciplined employees.) All five employees were
notified of the departmental action on May 19, 2001.
The practice at the serious
offender facility has been for a staff member to check on all
juveniles at ten-minute intervals 24 hours a day. These checks are
carried out for both individuals on, and not on, suicide watch. In
recent years the Department of Correction, the Arkansas Department
of Health, and the DYS Ombudsman have reviewed various aspects of
DYS operations. In recent months several DYS operated programs have
taken major steps toward national accreditation.
The Alexander Youth Services
Center is the largest facility operated by the Department of Human
Services Division of Youth Services housing approximately II 0
youths at a given time. The serious offender program generally
houses 25 juveniles. More than 90% of the males who spend time at
the serious offender program have been adjudicated on sexual or
violent offenses.
More than 700 medium and serious
offender juveniles are sent to the Alexander facility in the course
of a year by juvenile courts across the state. Most of the young
people adjudicated into the system are dealing with an array of
emotional and family issues in addition to the criminal issues they
have faced in juvenile courts. Prior to this incident there has
never been a successful suicide attempt in the serious offender
unit.
The Arkansas Department of Human
Services is the largest state agency with more than 7,500 employees
working in all 75 counties. The department operates 86 regional
offices and serves more than 700,000 people annually with a budget
of more than $2 billion.
