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| PROTECTIVE ISOLATION OR DISTURBING DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE? |
A recent story featured in the Arkansas Times and on The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network by David Ramsey detailed horrific practices by the Arkansas Department of Human Services in their Division of Youth Services (DYS") division.
Those of us that have worked for DHS (the publisher of this blog is included in that group) have long known of problems that particular division has faced and has experienced.
Ramsey revealed that DYS placed a 17-year-old youth at the Dermott facility in confined isolation for 23- 24
hours per day for a period totaling more than 90 days, according to
records examined by Disability Rights Arkansas ("DRA"), an advocacy group that
does regular observations at the juvenile lockups. More typically,
youths would spend a day or a few days confined, according to DRA
observers, let out only to shower and use the bathroom.
Ramsey also wrote that in some cases, a room where an older resident normally sleeps has been
used as a cell to put a younger child in isolation. DRA observers have
seen older youths with their bedding dragged into a common area, where
they sleep for the duration of the younger child’s stay in isolation.
Meanwhile, isolation has also been used for the 18-21-year-old youths at
the correctional facility; in that case, they would typically be
confined to their regularly assigned rooms.
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| “It has a detrimental effect on a youth’s treatment, education, physical health and mental health” - Tom Masseau, DRA Executive Director |
Ramsey states that one DRA observation this year, several younger children were confined in isolation in rooms at the correctional facility, and the lights in these rooms were turned out in the middle of the day so that the children were confined in darkness.
Staffers told DRA observers that the children were napping, but the observers could see them through the slit in the door, staring back at them in the dark, wide awake. Asked about such a practice, Amy Webb, chief communications officer at the DHS said that while it “perhaps” happened in the past, it was not happening now. “We are not OK with that approach,” she said.
Ramsey reports that before the DYS takeover in January, the nonprofit South Arkansas Youth Services ran the facilities at Dermott. Last year, one youth was placed into room confinement for a period totaling more than 90 days. The youth, who had a disability, did not receive educational instruction or programming, according to a letter sent by DRA in August 2016. According to logs pulled by DRA, the youth was isolated for 23-24 hours per day; some days he got recreation time out of the cell, some days he did not. In a response letter, South Arkansas Youth Services defended the practice of room confinement and disputed the accuracy of DRA’s information.
“He was identified as being violent,” said Marq Golden, the DYS assistant director for residential programs. “They made several attempts where they tried to move him back and he was still identified as violent. They provided him services [while confined at the correctional facility].”
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| MARQ GOLDEN - DYS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMS |
According to DRA, the practices they observed at Dermott continued after the DYS took over the facilities. But DYS officials said that the division has established clearer protocols at Dermott over the last few months in order to limit the frequency and duration of isolation. They said that while youths at Dermott may “perhaps” have been confined for days at a time without adequate services previously, that is not the current practice.
DRA provided DHS with reports of all their findings. For anyone at DHS to claim they had no idea what was going on at facilities under their direct control is absurd if not criminal.
DHS Director Cindy Gillespie and her DYS Division Director Betty Guhman did not respond to our requests for comments.
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| GILLESPIE & GUHMAN |
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Read another related Arkansas Times story about DYS:
https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/state-still-holds-reins-over-youth-lockups/Content?oid=8391587
