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...thing the judge is waiting for is a deposition from Marrero, which the former Marine sergeant is scheduled to give next week (though Marrero is not actually party to the suit). Lawyers for the Vieques plaintiffs say his testimony lends credence to their assertions about the long-term effects of living on the 55-sq.-mi. (88 sq km) island during the last half of the 20th century - and about the federal health and environmental laws they allege the Navy violated. "His coming forward offers proof," says John Eaves Jr., a Mississippi lawyer representing the Vieques residents. "These are things...
...deal with disturbed kids. But this is a three-year process that has only just begun at some of the state's most troubled institutions, and many of the staff are not particularly well-educated themselves. The transition can also aggravate existing problems, including what the union says is severe understaffing. Training takes staff away from their posts, as do the frequent injuries guards suffer from kids attacking them. Roughly a third of staff are injured in the course of a year, though state officials say many staff injuries occur in the course of resorting to excessive force. (Read...
...constitutional deficiencies" are not remedied, is a shocking indictment of both excessive force and mangled, unprofessional mental-health treatment; one 15-year-old, with no agreed-upon diagnosis, was found to be on six psychotropic medications at once. The unions for the guards and professional staff both say they also want to see improvement but insist that it must be made while recognizing the challenges of dealing with kids who can often become violent. (Read "Why Juvenile Detention Makes Teens Worse...
Guards and other facility staff also say that what they view as the new commissioner's more permissive regime has undermined their authority and made their already stressful, dangerous jobs that much more so. Small infractions like verbal abuse cannot be as readily disciplined - by withdrawing privileges or adding time - and this leads, they argue, to an escalation by kids who feel empowered. "The staff feel alienated from state officials, who they feel are not supporting them enough," says Stephen Madarasz, spokesperson for the New York Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA; Local 1000), which represents the guards and operational staff...
...Unions say the commissioner's reforms are moving too fast - there are now 1,000 kids in detention, down two-thirds from a few years ago - before there has been a sufficient shift of resources. "We are concerned that the commissioner has made this her personal crusade ... and we think it needs to be slowed down," says representative Darcy Mills...