Following a New York Times investigative expose, Louisiana’s Governor is asking for an investigation into conditions at Ware Youth Center, an independent governmental detention center in the northwest part of the State. As best I can tell, it features around 50 detention beds for boys and girls and another 40 nonsecure beds. Among the NYT’s findings: 64 suicide attempts in 2019 and 2020; a long history of rapes and other sexual assault by guards; children with mental health issues placed in extended isolation. (Over at Ben Miller’s Substack, he talks about the significant number of children with mental health needs who are relegated to detention facilities). The NYT article spells out decades of corruption, coverups, and cronyism at the facility.
In other news:
Interesting article about delays in the Massachusetts dependency court system.
New York’s highest court has determined that the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children doesn’t apply to out-of-state placements with non-offending, non-custodial parents. I’ve always thought that’s the proper interpretation of ICPC, although I think child welfare leaders should be cautious in placing a child out-of-state with a noncustodial parent without some sort of home study: example, the Harmony Montgomery case. ICPC does seem to be a broken process, with out-of-state approvals for relative placements sometimes taking over a year to reach approval.
Michigan is expanding access to its child abuse registry. Meanwhile we in Georgia got rid of ours, and Pennsylvania’s is being challenged in court. And an audit recently found problems with Louisiana’s registry.
As my Taylor English colleague Debbie Ausburn has reported, a Texas foster care agency is in trouble for allegedly keeping on its payrolls an executive charged with child rape. Texas Public Radio has the full story.
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