Troubled youth often find themselves detained at youth detention facilities. Unfortunately, these facilities are typically horror shows, filled with incompetent staff and the type of human rights abuses better suited to a Nazi concentration camp. Here are some examples of the type of abuse troubled kids endure at youth detention facilities:
Guards bribe teen to beat-up another boy
In Florida, a 13-year-old boy identified as “A.R.” was nearly killed after being attacked by another youth at the bequest of the guards at the facility. The incident occurred at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center. Guards at the facility bribed another teenager with extra food to carry out the beating. Sadly, such things are far from unusual: When kiddie prison staff are annoyed with a particular child or have a hard time dealing with a youth, they’ll often coerce other teens to do their dirty work for them.
After being assaulted, the boy was placed in a room filled with toxic bleach fumes, where he nearly died of an asthma attack. Gordon Weekes, the chief public defender for Broward County, believes that under staffing and overcrowding leads to the type of inhumane treatment children endure while at the facility. “The staff are overworked and underpaid, and as a result they have a short fuse,” Weekes said in a July 18, 2016 statement. ¹
References:
- Prison Legal New, December 2016, page 63