Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
SPLC Sues Mississippi County to Stop 'Shocking' Abuse of Children at Detention Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center today filed a federal class action suit to stop the "shockingly inhumane" treatment of children at a juvenile detention center and to force officials to provide sanitary facilities and mental health treatment to young people confined there.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of a 17-year-old boy who, despite attempting suicide while in the facility, has received no mental health treatment. He has been subjected to physical abuse and filthy conditions, and has been forced to sleep on the floor in an overcrowded, insect-infested cell.
The Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Miss., has been operated by a private corporation, the Mississippi Security Police, for more than nine years at an annual cost of $1.6 million.
"It is a travesty that the county has chosen to let a private company profit by neglecting and abusing our children," said Vanessa Carroll, a staff attorney for the SPLC's Mississippi Youth Justice Project and counsel for the children.
Most of the children confined at the facility have not been adjudicated guilty of any crime and are awaiting court hearings. Many are there for minor offenses and so-called "status offenses" like truancy.
The lawsuit describes how the county has failed to provide the most basic, constitutionally required services to the plaintiff, known in the suit as D.W.
"Toilets and walls are covered with mold, rust and excrement," the lawsuit says. "Insects have infested the facility, and the smell of human excrement permeates the entire building. Children frequently have to sleep on thin mats that smell of urine and mold. Defendants do not provide children with adequate personal hygiene items."
Children who have been confined there describe assaults by guards, being locked in their cells for 23 hours every day, inadequate medical and mental health care, and widespread infections caused by the filthy conditions.
Marlon, 17, said children are treated like animals at the facility. "I've seen the guards slam kids, mace them and do things they wouldn't even do to their own dog, let alone a human."
D.W. said he was abused even while on suicide watch after he had tried to hang himself with a bed sheet. "A guard choked me from behind and slammed me on the floor," he said. "While that guard held me down, another guard dropped his knee in my neck, slammed my face to the floor and then pushed my face into the concrete. I couldn't breathe."
Mississippi Protection and Advocacy Inc., a congressionally authorized nonprofit organization that enforces the civil rights of people with disabilities, is also a plaintiff in the suit. It is demanding access to the facility, to which it is entitled under federal law.
"This lawsuit demands that Harrison County ensure the safety of children in its custody," said co-counsel Sheila Bedi, SPLC's regional juvenile justice attorney. "But this lawsuit also gives the county a chance to reconsider investing $1.6 million a year in a private, for-profit prison company at the expense of our children. Perhaps now the county will recognize that investing in communities and families is a wiser use of taxpayer dollars."
The lawsuit seeks class action status to protect all children who are currently confined at the detention center as well as those who will be confined there in the future.
Please add your voice. We will send your message to the officials in Harrison County.
Contact us:
If you, your child or anyone you know has information about the Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center, please contact the SPLC's Mississippi Youth Justice Project at 601-594-0848 or toll free at 800-597-9583, or send an email .
"Ten Trillion and Counting" by Frontline
The journey begins as FRONTLINE correspondent Forrest Sawyer takes viewers to a secret location: the Treasury's debt auction room, where the U.S. government sells securities backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States." On this day, the government is auctioning $67 billion of Treasury securities. The money borrowed will be used to fund services and programs that the government cannot pay for through tax revenues alone.
Why 10% is a lofty goal for the ELCA?
Beside the fact that I’m leaving the ELCA, okay, I’m just joking about my importance, well, partial joking since I’m planning to leave the ELCA by the end of this calendar year. Okay, I’m not naive, at least not enough, to assume that another mainline denomination has no issue concerning race, gender and sexuality. They all have problems. However, the ELCA makes any major mainline denomination look diverse. Honestly, even the PCUSA looks multi-ethnical because of the ELCA. Yes, they are lots of good people in the ELCA and lots of wonderful minority ministers trying to make the ELCA more diverse. However, as long as the ELCA is a staunch defender of the gringo/a gospel, the ELCA will be gringo/a in its core. Bishop Hanson, if you ever come across this blog, I want you to know that condemning racism is wonderful, but such condemnation is hardly of any great value when the ELCA is still, after more than two decades, hovering just below the three percent mark in minority membership. It took the ELCA about two decades to move more 1.6 percent to 2.7 percent in minority membership. Bravo! Perhaps, in another two decades, the ELCA can be around 4 percent. Well, in total honesty, it will take more than learning a few cute phrases in Spanish or another foreign language to reach out. Granted that it would be a good idea for us, who don’t speak English, to learn it. I’m guilty of it. Perhaps, that would help in the area of communication, which is a good thing since forward movement begins with good communication. However, it is important to remember that having good communication means merely that there is talking going on. But, as most of us are well aware of that old saying: “Talk is cheap!” Yes, it is cheap to talk. So, please begin by really forcing the issue to the front burner. Force large and wealth congregations to see their own discrimination against minority ordained ministers as senior pastors. Honestly, I do hope the ELCA stops its own self inflicted bleeding and begins to live its own motto: “Semper Reformanda!” I do hope this is soon.
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