Politicos use excessive force against children in NH's Sununu Center

[thinkliberty]

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/873776-196/report-charges-juvenile-jail-staff-abuses-children.html

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 08:14AM
Report charges juvenile jail staff abuses children
   
CONCORD - Staff at the state's juvenile detention center in Manchester continue to use excessive force against juvenile inmates, the New Hampshire Disability Rights Center charged in a report released Tuesday. The report is the second that the Disability Rights Center (DRC) has issued concerning the Sununu Youth Services Center, and the agency states that a sampling of 109 juveniles showed "a pervasive pattern of unnecessary and excessive force against children at the juvenile facility."
The Sununu Center, formerly the Youth Detention Center, houses an average of 60 juveniles aged 16 and younger at any given time, the DRC reports.
The DRC criticizes staff for using restraints including "escorts, arm controls, shoulder restraints, standing restraints, mechanical restraints, body wraps, takedowns, and supine and prone floor restraints."

Over half of the restraint incidents, however, included the use of prone restraint, which the DRC states, "impairs a child's breathing and exposes children to an unreasonable risk of death or injury."

The DRC charges that staff used excessive force in over half of the incidents, and that the way staff handles the juveniles tended to provoke or escalate their misbehavior.
"Staff use of physical force or verbal abuse that we found at the Sununu Center would not be tolerated against adult prisoners," DRC Director Richard Cohen stated in a press release. "Ironically, these kids by virtue of their age, disability, emotional fragility, and trauma history are more vulnerable to harm from these actions than most adults."
The first DRC report on the youth detention center found that two counselors had injured a mentally ill 14-year old boy by using a "take-down" restraint, and then dragging him face-down across the floor and holding him in a prone restraint.

The report and the press release can be found online at www.drcnh.org/SYSC2.html.

- Andrew Wolfe