The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The ACA government affairs director said the group has talks scheduled with the N.C. Juvenile Justice Department that could lead to renewed pursuit of accreditation.

About 80 percent of state departments of corrections and juvenile services participate in ACA, the group says, including at least 18 state juvenile departments.

Learning that Swannanoa Valley Youth Development Center no longer is one of them came as a surprise Friday to the former director of the lockup, which is now the subject of a soon-to-conclude investigation into attacks on staff.

Bill Stanley said the state first sought ACA oversight of its juvenile prisons while he led Swannanoa from 1993-96.

“Whew, that was tough to get accredited,” recalled Stanley, a Buncombe County commissioner. “Man, you had to meet some stiff requirements.”

But it was worth it, he said.

The auditors provided an independent validation that health, safety, security, employee training and the budget met expectations, he said. They pored over records, inspected the cafeteria and sat down with staff and teens.

It was also expensive.

The ACA did not provide its fees, but Kentucky officials said the state pays an annual rate that has varied between about $50,000 and $100,000.

Among its benefits could be a defense in lawsuits — of which the N.C. Juvenile Justice Department has had its share — said Percy Pitzer, owner of consulting firm Creative Corrections.

“How much is $10,000 if you prevent litigation, if you prevent serious incidents, if you prevent deaths, if you prevent escapes?” Pitzer said. “It’s a drop in the bucket.”

The ACA declined to release records of their inspections, but Stanley and a former maintenance director remembered the inspections every three years giving high marks to Swannanoa and providing important checks and balances.

“Students got to talk to the ACA inspectors,” said Harry Biddix, a Weaverville man who worked there from 1992-2000. “Students got someone who was qualified to listen to them, who would actually sit down with them. And part of our grade was how the students responded.”

The department didn’t respond to questions about when the inspections stopped, but by summer 2002 an inspection report listed auditors coming from the same department as the audited.

That same year, inmates sued for being sexually and physically abused by an employee who later was convicted of sex offenses. Reports of abuse led to a state audit that reported problems in discipline and training, then plans to reorganize facilities on a new therapeutic model of care.

Last year, several staff members were assaulted.

Carolyn Donohue, who says administrators in Raleigh share responsibility for the beating of her husband, Tom, in the most serious of those attacks, said she doesn’t believe internal checks are sufficient.

“If the people running the department are the source of the problem,” she said, “then you have the fox watching the chickens.” Copyright 2007 Asheville Citizen-Times. All rights reserved. http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770127058