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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOfficials say a new juvenile lockup was 'born of necessity.' Experts call it 'child abuse.'
Lawyers and a judge gathered in an East Baton Rouge juvenile courtroom last October for an update on a teenager detained after joyriding in a stolen car. The teen appeared on a screen, alongside a caseworker who stunned everyone by describing conditions in the lockup where he was held.
The 15-year-old was being kept in round-the-clock solitary confinement. He was getting no education, in violation of state and federal law, nor was he getting court-ordered substance abuse counseling, according to two defense attorneys present. And no one in the room that day not the judge, not the prosecutor, not the defense lawyers appeared to have heard of the facility where Louisianas Office of Juvenile Justice was holding him, the Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville.
It was as if a secret prison had been opened up, one of the attorneys, Jack Harrison, said. I could see on the judges face both shock and real anger visceral anger.
They had no idea how bad it was.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/louisiana-juvenile-detention-st-martinvillle-rcna19227
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Lousyanna scores--er, strikes out--again
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,147 posts)I_UndergroundPanther
(12,452 posts)He did a crime and ended up abused.
Solitary btw is classified as torture these days.
I was in solitary for 9 months because thats what psychiatrists thought back than would help people with mental illness.
A law was passed years later that limited stays in seclusion to no more than 2 hours.
Wish they'd pass a law like that to limit how long juvenile prisoners stayed in seclusion too.