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...many other states have already found out, changing the juvenile-justice culture is easier said than done. Shifting to what is called a "trauma-based" or "sanctuary model" means training guards (who are formally known in New York as youth-division aides) to better understand how to 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...
Among the kids, it was known as Rug Burn City, a reference to the injuries they sustained when guards at the Gossett juvenile prison in upstate New York routinely pinned young offenders face down on the carpeted floor. The restraints were supposed to be an infrequent last resort, but according to a damning recent Justice Department report, they ended up being used regularly as part of a culture of intimidation and control, sometimes for the slightest infractions, such as speaking out of turn, slamming doors and not properly making...
...disturbing as they are, the allegations of abuse are just one of many in the federal report focusing on four of New York State's worst juvenile-justice institutions. The report, which warns that the Federal Government could take over the system if the "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...
...while nearly everyone can agree that the conditions at these youth facilities need to be changed, there is much less consensus about how best to go about doing that. "Nobody said this was going to be easy," says New York State assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, an Ithaca-area Democrat who helped uncover a gross lack of oversight of the entire system. "This is like turning the Queen Mary around...
...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. State officials, for their part, express frustration that despite retraining, too many of the staff continue to over-rely on force. Most observers admit that the conflict is at least in part a cultural clash between...