How Could You? Hall of Shame-Nevada Youth Training Center UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Elko, Nevada, “Claims are being made concerning children being hogtied as a form of punishment at a juvenile corrections facility in Nevada.

After hearing the allegations, a family court judge ordered all the juveniles from Clark County be removed from the Nevada Youth Training Center in Elko.

It’s up to the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services to make sure state facilities are safe and children are treated with dignity. The agency denies the allegations.

The claims allege boys were being forced to lay on the ground with their hands and feet bound together behind their backs. According to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, it is legal to restrain a youth at high risk of harming themselves or others. The allegations say the practice was being used as punishment.

After hearing those claims Thursday, Clark County Judge William Voy ordered 12 children be removed from the  Nevada Youth Training Center.

A court spokesperson says the judge cannot comment because it is a pending matter involving juveniles. Chief deputy district attorney Brigid Duffy says her office is now trying to figure out where the boys will go.

“So they can’t go from detention back home just because this happened. We need to know they’ve had their services and that it’s safe for the community, for them to come out of their last dispositioned placement which was Elko,” Duffy said.

She says the claims of abuse are alarming.

“All of those should be thoroughly investigated to make sure there was no abuse or neglect of a youth,” Duffy said.

8 News NOW called the family services division and was told the Department of Health and Human Services would be fielding questions on the allegations. A statement was released, which read, in part, “Even though the identified restraint which ensures appropriate safety of the youth and staff adheres to American Correctional Association requirements, it has not been used at NYTC since Dec. 2013.”

Regardless, staff intends to respond to Judge Voy’s verbal order by relocating the youth as timely as possible.

“Our four state facilities serve a purpose for community safety and rehabilitation, but regardless of the delinquent act, no child deserves to be abused or neglected,” Duffy said.”

Allegations of ‘hogtying’ youth at correctional facility[8 News Now 7/18/14 by Brian Brennan]

“Susan Roske, who oversees the juvenile division of the Clark County public defender’s office, said she attended a hearing Wednesday at which Judge William Voy issued the order.

Roske said Voy called the hearing after receiving reports about a method of police restraint, called “hobbling,” that is being used at the Elko facility.

“Some people describe it as hogtying,” the attorney said.

Voy has declined to comment on the issue.

Jennifer Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Nevada attorney general’s office, confirmed the judge’s order Thursday in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Judge Voy issued an oral order yesterday in court requiring Clark County youth in the Nevada Youth Training Center be returned to Clark County Juvenile Detention facility,” Lopez wrote Thursday. “At this time we have not received the written court order.”

Roske said Wednesday’s hearing involved concerns that the hobbling technique is being used at both the Elko facility and at the Caliente Youth Center, but Voy had “documented reports from the Elko facility that substantiated the complaints by some of the youth.”

She said the method involves using handcuffs and ankle shackles, then connecting the hands and feet together.

“Ostensibly it’s to gain control of an out-of-control youth, but it appears that it may have been used punitively,” Roske said.

One juvenile inmate who was interviewed Sunday about the Elko facility while at the Clark County Juvenile Justice Services Detention Center, described the restraint technique as “a youth’s feet being ankle chained and their hands being placed in waist chains then handcuffs are used to connect their wrists to the ankle chains.” A copy of the interview conducted by staff at the Clark County facility was obtained by the Review-Journal.

A Dec. 9, 2013, interview with a youth at Clark County’s Red Rock Academy for juvenile offenders indicated that when he was at the Elko facility, “Staff hit him.” He said in the interview that he had been “hobbled” and “the staff had him lay on the floor and staff cuffed his hand to his leg behind his back.” He reported an Elko staff member kneed him in the back repeatedly while he was restrained.

A youth interviewed on Dec. 18, 2013, reported that when he was at the Caliente Youth Center, “he was hogtied 14 times in one day.”

At least in one case, a staff member “decided to place the youth in a hobble restraint to prevent the youth from continuing to not follow instructions,” according to an incident report filed by involved employees.

According to an Aug. 5, 2013, incident report from Elko staff members, “A youth was instructed to lay in the prone position and did so without incident.” Staff “entered the youth’s room and placed youth in a belly chain, ankle restraint and then continued by placing the handcuffs on the youth in order to connect the leg irons and belly chains for the hobbles restraint.” Staff “moved the youth to the back of the room. We then exited the room.”

Roske said Voy’s order affects 12 boys at the Elko facility, including four who were scheduled to be released next week. She said Voy wants the boys returned to Clark County today.

Roske said the hearing in Voy’s courtroom involved three offenders, including two 18-year-old men she represents.

She said one of her clients was housed in Elko and the other in Caliente, and both claim the hobbling technique was used on them last year.

The third offender was housed at the Elko facility.

All three are now out of custody, Roske said.

According to the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services website, the Nevada Youth Training Center is a 160-bed, staff-secure facility for male youth, and the Caliente Youth Center is a 140-bed, staff-secure facility for both male and female youth.

Both facilities serve offenders ages 12 to 18.

Voy, a Family Court judge since 1998, has been presiding over juvenile delinquency cases in Clark County for about a decade. He was re-elected to another six-year term earlier this year when he ran unopposed.

A Review-Journal reporter who requested an interview with Voy on Thursday was referred by his assistant to Chief Deputy District Attorney Brigid Duffy, who works in the juvenile division, and court spokeswoman Mary Ann Price.

In response to a question about Voy’s ruling, Duffy told the reporter, “If he’s done such a thing, then he should be able to verify that for you.”

The attorney said she could not comment on specific orders.

“At this point I see it as being a confidential matter,” she said.

Price said neither she nor Voy could comment on the matter because it involves juveniles and therefore is confidential.

The Justice Department investigated the Nevada Youth Training Center in 2002 after employees were accused of violating the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.

Employees were accused of smashing the heads of juveniles against doors and throwing them to the floor when they did not follow directions. A teacher also was accused of kicking a boy.

The Review-Journal reported in 2004 that five employees had been fired and that others had been disciplined for their treatment of juveniles at the facility. A formal settlement was reached with the Justice Department that year.

In 2008, the Associated Press reported that four years of Justice Department oversight had ended with a finding that Nevada had resolved the agency’s concerns about abuse at the Elko facility.”

“Hogtying’ allegation prompts order to remove juveniles from Elko facility[Las Vegas Review-Journal 7/17/14 by Carol Geer]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update:“Nevada officials on Wednesday said institutional abuse allegations at the Nevada Youth Training Center in Elko were first reported in December, but investigations found that each use of “mechanical restraints” had been necessary.

A restraint technique called “hobbling” is acceptable in cases of youth at high risk of escape or harming themselves or others, officials with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services said.

However, the Division of Child and Family Services, which oversees the state’s juvenile correctional facilities, doesn’t allow physical or mechanical restraints to be used as punishment.

The hobbling incidents reported by Clark County juvenile inmates earlier this month fall into the category of mechanical restraints, which can involve handcuffs, leg cuffs, waistbands, leather straps, and restraining chairs.

“I have a high level of confidence staff at (Nevada Youth Training Center) continually work to create an environment focused on improving the conditions of confinement and quality of life for incarcerated youth,” Romaine Gilliland, director of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement released Wednesday. “I look forward to continued discussions that may lead to operational improvement.”

In a hearing last week, Clark County Family Court Judge William Voy called for a review of restraint policies at the Elko facility after juvenile inmates reported being hogtied while in isolation. His request came after receiving reports earlier this month that staff had hogtied juveniles at the Northern Nevada facility. That prompted Voy to order the return of 12 Clark County offenders to his jurisdiction.

Voy didn’t return a call seeking comment Wednesday, but a second hearing on the issue is scheduled for Thursday.

The state Division of Child and Family Services was “extremely concerned” when claims of abuse at the Elko facility were first reported in December, according to its Wednesday statement.

To avoid the conflict of investigating itself, the division directed the Washoe County Department of Social Services to review the reports of abuse and determine whether an investigation was required.

The Washoe department investigated each of the allegations of institutional abuse and determined practices and procedures were appropriately followed and that the allegations were unsubstantiated.

An internal investigation was also conducted by the state Division of Child and Family Services to determine whether each use of force was warranted and whether staff actions were consistent with policies and training.

“It was determined that each use of mechanical restraints was necessary for the situation,” officials said.

The restraining practice at the Elko facility adheres to the American Correctional Association standards, officials said. It was unclear Wednesday whether those standards apply to juvenile correctional facilities, adult correctional facilities or both.

Other organizations disagree.

“The hogtie or hobble position should be considered risky practice and avoided,” according to the American Jail Association, which points out that individuals have suffered asphyxia while hogtied.

But that form of intervention hasn’t been used at the Elko facility since December.

Al Lasso, a personal injury attorney in Las Vegas, represents a client he said was subjected to mechanical restraints at the Elko facility. He said his client will not be making any statements at this time.

“However, once all the facts come out, the public will quickly understand that this is one of the most egregious cases of ongoing child abuse and attempted murder of a child by persons in a position of power,” Lasso wrote in an email. “We will be filing our lawsuit shortly in the hope that it will keep other children safe from such abuse.”

About one in four U.S. juvenile facilities reported using mechanical restraints, and one in five reported locking youth in some type of isolation, according to the 2010 Juvenile Residential Facility Census by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The report analyzed data from 2,111 facilities across the country.

All juvenile correctional facilities in Nevada go through comprehensive reviews, audits, and unannounced inspections by the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s legislative auditor on governmental and private facilities for children.

Those reviews are to ensure facilities are adequately protecting the health, safety and welfare of those housed there.

According to an Elko center staff report from August, “a youth was instructed to lay in the prone position and did so without incident.” Staff then “entered the youth’s room and placed youth in a belly chain, ankle restraint and then continued by placing the handcuffs on the youth in order to connect the leg irons and belly chains for the hobbles restraint.” Staff “moved the youth to the back of the room. We then exited the room.”

In early December, a youth at Clark County’s Red Rock Academy for juvenile offenders indicated that when he was at the Elko facility he was “hobbled” and “the staff had him lay on the floor and staff cuffed his hand to his leg behind his back.” Later that month, a juvenile at Caliente reported that “he was hogtied 14 times in one day.””

Nevada: ‘Hogtying’ at youth facility necessary[Las Vegas Review-Journal 7/30/14 by Yesenia Amaro]