Call up Alabama's Department of Yourh Services and staff members can tell you fairly quickly how many claims of assault, sexual abuse, and other violations have been made by young people house in the six youth facilities run by the state.
But the same information is not so readily available for the 26 privately –run facilities that the state agency pays to house youthful offenders. Private detention centers hold about half of the agency's juvenile wards, but DYS says it doesn't routinely keep statistics to show what is going on in those lockups.
So, this news story from Pennsylvania caught my eye. It exposes yet another flaw in privatizing juvenile justice:
....Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.
While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled.
These guys have handled the cases of up to 5,000 youths. Most of whom weren't charged with violent crimes.
While everyone in Alabama is busy debating the Siegelman prosecution, watching the primaries, or just wishing it were football season, the Associated Press has been busy studying the juvenile justice system across the country.
The disturbing results for Alabama's system mirror those from around the country where public safety functions have been outsourced to private industry. The for-profit entities, like most corporations, exist to enrich their shareholders. The prison/detention system is a particular issue: it's almost impossible to get information about conditions, inmate complaints, and employee training in these private facilities. Either government agencies don't even bother to ask, or, the information is protected as a "trade secret."
According to the survey, more than 13,000 claims of abuse were identified in juvenile correction centers around the country from 2004 through 2007 – a remarkable number, given that there were about 46,000 detainees when the states were surveyed in 2007.
Just 1,343 of those claims of abuse were confirmed by various authorities. Of 1,140 claims of sexual abuse, 143 were confirmed by investigators.
Experts say only a fraction of the allegations are ever confirmed. These are some of the most troubled young people in the country and some will make up stories. But in other cases, the youths are pressured not to report abuse; often, no one believes them anyway.
It gets worse:
In 2004, the U.S. Justice Department uncovered 2,821 allegations of sexual abuse by juvenile correction staffers. The government study included 194 private facilities, which likely accounts for the higher numbers than the AP found.
Unfortunately, the report on Alabama reflects the national findings.
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