Lawsuit: Arkansas Juvenile Detention Centers

This Lawsuit was filed in 2024. It is still making its way through the court system.

” Nine lawsuits are being filed against private contractors operating Arkansas state juvenile detention centers, accusing them of covering up child sex abuse by staff members over the last two decades.

Attorney Joshua Gillispie, managing partner of Gillispie Law Firm in North Little Rock, says the issue of child sex abuse in Arkansas’ juvenile detention system is widespread and often silenced.

“Each of these nine victims were sexually abused as children by staff working for these private contractors,” Gillispie said.

Four lawsuits have been filed as of Tuesday. Plaintiffs say that between the ages of 14 and 16, they were sexually assaulted by employees at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center (AJATC) and the Mansfield Juvenile Treatment Center. The AJATC serves as the main juvenile intake center for the entire state.

All nine clients say they were sexually abused by staff—some on multiple occasions—at the two facilities, both owned by the Arkansas Department of Youth Services, under the Department of Human Services.

Gillispie says the underlying issue is the state’s flawed system of contracting operation of the facilities to private, for-profit companies.

When you have a private company who is focused on the bottom line, focused on profits, running a prison—particularly a prison for children—their goal is to maintain these lucrative contracts with the state. These companies are incentivized to do everything in their power to keep these contracts.

He further explained that, in all nine of the lawsuits he is filing, none of the abuse was reported to police or hotlines and the alleged perpetrators were kept on staff.

So, what do they do when numerous children report to supervisors at these facilities that they’re being sexually exploited or assaulted by a staff member?

They don’t do anything.

Five out of the nine are alleging that incidents of child sexual abuse occurred within the last five years.

At least one of the plaintiffs says they were raped.

The private contractors named by Gillispie in the lawsuits include Southern Arkansas Youth Services, which previously operated the Mansfield facility but was dissolved when its CEO was convicted of bribery and fraud; Youth Opportunities Incorporated, G4S, GEO Group, and Rite of Passage, which currently operates both the AJATC and Mansfield facilities.

Gillispie says there are other companies that may have operated the facilities for brief periods of time, but investigating them is made difficult by a lack of records from DHS.

Unfortunately the Department of Human Services apparently don’t keep records going back further than a few years and are either unwilling or unable to provide us with a list of the private companies that they use to operate their facilities more than five years ago,” he explained. “Our FOIA response was relevant only to the last few years and DHS will say they don’t have documents that go back farther than that.

The Department of Human Services did not directly respond to the accusation when pressed for a response but did say it takes such issues of juvenile welfare ‘seriously.’

While we are not commenting on any pending litigation, DHS always takes the safety and well-being of children and youth in our custody very seriously,” the DHS said in a statement to KATV. “We thoroughly respond to any and all complaints when they are brought to our attention.

Gillispie said the rest of its nine clients’ lawsuits will be filed in the coming weeks said he hopes the lawsuits will shine a light on child sex abuse in state juvenile detention centers and serve as a deterrent to potentially unsavory contractors.

This wave of litigation is made possible by a two-year window that waives the statute of limitations on bringing civil actions in cases involving child sexual abuse. The window closes at the end of this month. Regardless of that, the cases involving five of Gillispie’s nine clients fall within the statute of limitations.”

Juvenile detention center operators sued over alleged child sex abuse cover-ups
[13 WHAM 1/24/24 by ANDREW MOBLEY]

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