Post by Pending on Feb 15, 2010 9:21:55 GMT -5
Lawmakers tour troubled juvenile facility
By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
February 12, 2010 10:03 pm
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ANDERSON — Indiana prison officials say they are focused on addressing claims of widespread sex abuse at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility after local lawmakers met with leaders of the Department of Correction on Thursday.
State Sen. Tim Lanane, D-District 25, said he and Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, met with DOC officials including Commissioner Edwin Buss and Michael Dempsey, DOC’s Director of the Division of Youth Services.
“They acknowledged there is a problem they are taking steps to rectify,” Lanane said Friday.
Last month, four female juvenile facility employees were charged with felony official misconduct over alleged sexual relations with an 18-year-old male inmate at the facility.
The arrests came in the same month that a federal Department of Justice survey revealed that 36.2 percent of the juvenile inmates at Pendleton reported they had been sexually assaulted by a staff member or another inmate. That rate was the second-highest of 195 juvenile facilities that the Justice Department surveyed.
Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison said changes are being implemented at the Pendleton facility, starting with reinforcing a zero-tolerance policy.
“One thing I know we’re going to be doing is reinterviewing all the offenders,” Garrison said, to determine the level of victimization. “We’ll take that as a training opportunity for both staff and offenders. The policy of the Department of Correction is there is no such thing as a consensual sexual relationship in a correctional facility.”
Austin said lawmakers had requested the meeting in light of the study and arrests. She and Lanane said they were reassured after meeting with department leaders. Austin said DOC is taking the situation seriously.
“Not only are they looking at a variety of interventions to make sure it does not happen again, they’re trying to overall improve staff knowledge,” Austin said. “I was very comfortable with the discussion we had. I thought it was very candid.”
Lanane said DOC officials “were very frank, very forthcoming. ... That wasn’t to say they didn’t have some questions about the survey.”
Lanane said he had the impression that DOC officials had been caught off guard by the survey results. “I think they were caught by surprise, but I did not see that they were in denial,” he said.
Garrison said offenders are in most cases in places that can be monitored by video, but acknowledged there are parts of the facility where monitoring is not as easy.
“We are much more redoubling our efforts to watch what’s going on and make sure it doesn’t continue,” he said of alleged abuse.
www.theheraldbulletin.com/breakingnews/local_story_043220520.html/resources_printstory
By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
February 12, 2010 10:03 pm
—
ANDERSON — Indiana prison officials say they are focused on addressing claims of widespread sex abuse at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility after local lawmakers met with leaders of the Department of Correction on Thursday.
State Sen. Tim Lanane, D-District 25, said he and Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, met with DOC officials including Commissioner Edwin Buss and Michael Dempsey, DOC’s Director of the Division of Youth Services.
“They acknowledged there is a problem they are taking steps to rectify,” Lanane said Friday.
Last month, four female juvenile facility employees were charged with felony official misconduct over alleged sexual relations with an 18-year-old male inmate at the facility.
The arrests came in the same month that a federal Department of Justice survey revealed that 36.2 percent of the juvenile inmates at Pendleton reported they had been sexually assaulted by a staff member or another inmate. That rate was the second-highest of 195 juvenile facilities that the Justice Department surveyed.
Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison said changes are being implemented at the Pendleton facility, starting with reinforcing a zero-tolerance policy.
“One thing I know we’re going to be doing is reinterviewing all the offenders,” Garrison said, to determine the level of victimization. “We’ll take that as a training opportunity for both staff and offenders. The policy of the Department of Correction is there is no such thing as a consensual sexual relationship in a correctional facility.”
Austin said lawmakers had requested the meeting in light of the study and arrests. She and Lanane said they were reassured after meeting with department leaders. Austin said DOC is taking the situation seriously.
“Not only are they looking at a variety of interventions to make sure it does not happen again, they’re trying to overall improve staff knowledge,” Austin said. “I was very comfortable with the discussion we had. I thought it was very candid.”
Lanane said DOC officials “were very frank, very forthcoming. ... That wasn’t to say they didn’t have some questions about the survey.”
Lanane said he had the impression that DOC officials had been caught off guard by the survey results. “I think they were caught by surprise, but I did not see that they were in denial,” he said.
Garrison said offenders are in most cases in places that can be monitored by video, but acknowledged there are parts of the facility where monitoring is not as easy.
“We are much more redoubling our efforts to watch what’s going on and make sure it doesn’t continue,” he said of alleged abuse.
www.theheraldbulletin.com/breakingnews/local_story_043220520.html/resources_printstory