JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REACHES SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT REGARDING
CONDITIONS AT NEVADA JUVENILE FACILITY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with the state of Nevada to resolve concerns of conditions of confinement at the Nevada Youth Training Center (“NYTC”), one of three juvenile justice facilities in Nevada. Through the course of its investigation, the Department found numerous civil rights violations at the facility.

The Department uncovered evidence that youths at NYTC were repeatedly subjected to excessive force and other forms of abuse. Specifically, the investigation uncovered numerous instances of staff punching youths in the chest, kicking their legs, grabbing shirts and shoving them against lockers and walls. Additional violations included “dipping” or throwing youths to the floor, slapping them in the face, smashing their heads in doors, and pulling youths from their beds to the floor. Other civil rights violations the Department discovered included inadequate due process safeguards in placing youths in seclusion, inadequate mental health care and safety, an unsafe, ineffective grievance system, censoring of mail critical of the facility as well as unsafe transportation practices.

“We are committed protecting the rights of juveniles in state-run institutions,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “This agreement will go a long way to providing safe conditions and adequate treatment for these children, which will in turn aid them in becoming more productive members of society.”

The agreement will ensure that youths at the facility are protected from excessive force and unsafe conditions. Also, it will safeguard youths from unwarranted seclusion, ensure that they have access to appropriate mental health care, and provide mechanisms through which they can raise grievances without facing retribution.

The agreement represents a negotiated resolution of the Department’s investigation that was made possible through the extraordinary cooperation and commitment of Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn; Director of the Nevada Department of Human Resources Michael Willden; and the Superintendent of the Nevada Youth Training Center Dale Warmuth.

Under the terms of the agreement, the state will: limit the use of force to situations in which youths pose a risk of harm to themselves or others; hold staff accountable for use of excessive force; refrain from placing youths in seclusion in contravention of facility policy and ensure that youths receive adequate due process protections before being placed in seclusion in excess of 24 hours; ensure that decisions regarding youths’ psychotropic medications are based on professional mental health assessments; provide youths with an effective, reliable process to raise grievances; prohibit the censoring of outgoing mail critical of the facility; and refrain from handcuffing youths together when being transported.

The Civil Rights Division conducted its investigation pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (“CRIPA”). This statute authorizes the Attorney General to investigate and root out systemic abuses such as those identified here. The Civil Rights Division successfully has resolved similar investigations of juvenile facilities in Georgia, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico. The Department recently filed suit against the State of Mississippi to end abuses of confined juveniles in that state.

Since 2001, the Department of Justice has opened 38 similar investigations into the terms and conditions of confinement at nursing homes, mental health facilities and residences for persons with developmental disabilities, juvenile justice facilities, and prisons. These figures represent a 90 percent increase over the 20 such investigations initiated over the preceding three years.

More information about the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division can be found at <http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/index/html>.

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04-119