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May 22, 2008
OH: Federal Jugde Approves Plan to Overhaul Prisons for Youth
Overhaul of state's juvenile prisons approved
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 8:40 PM
By ALAYNA DEMARTINI
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The state's overcrowded, understaffed and violent juvenile prisons are about to be overhauled.
A federal judge approved a plan yesterday to improve the medical care, mental-health care and education of young felons and to better train prison employees to subdue their charges without violence.
The policy has been, “Hit first, ask questions later,” said Fred Cohen, a consultant who evaluated the prison system last year, exposing a host of serious problems.
“This is not going to go away overnight.”
The 89-page proposal resulted from a series of lawsuits child-advocacy lawyers filed against the Ohio juvenile-prison system. The plan went into effect yesterday and includes deadlines for the changes.
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In federal court yesterday, Lisa Ward held up a picture of her son and described how he has suffered a series of injuries since he arrived in prison in January.
An 18-year-old inmate sexually assaulted her son in prison when he was 12, she said.
Guards trying to restrain the boy bashed his head on the ground, causing a concussion, Ward said. In another incident, she said, “One of the guards punched him over his heart. He had a bruise, and they call that restraint.”
Nicholas Seefong, an inmate in the Circleville juvenile prison, pointed out in court that the state needs to quickly improve how it houses the inmates.
Young felons in the juvenile prison often are beat up, Seefong said, because they are housed with more-violent inmates.
Inmates fear retaliation if they report that a staff member assaulted them, he said, and even when they do report it, little is done.
Cohen has blasted the juvenile prisons' policy of placing severely misbehaving youths in solitary confinement for extended periods. He called it “unconstitutional'' and said it should be immediately stopped.
Cohen is part of a team of professionals that will continue to monitor and assist the system in making the required changes.
The U.S. Department of Justice also will be watching. It filed a lawsuit last week against the state's juvenile-prison system and Gov. Ted Strickland.
It agreed to drop the suit after the state agreed to keep the justice department in the loop on the agency's progress.
The state's eight juvenile prisons have 1,527 inmates ranging from 11 to 20 years old. It costs the state about $80,000 a year for each juvenile inmate.
The new plan is estimated to add $20 million to $30 million annually to the system's budget of $293 million.
The state has agreed to pay the legal fees of the lawyers who sued the state on behalf of juvenile inmates. The fees are expected to total about $220,000, said Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati lawyer involved in the suit.
“It isn't easy to change large organizations,” Tom Stickrath, director of Ohio's juvenile-prison system said as he left court yesterday. “I have found it to be challenging, perhaps more challenging than I had expected.”
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/21/JUVI_PRISONS.html?sid=101
Posted by lois at May 22, 2008 11:05 AM