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Written by administrator
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Nov 19, 2005 at 07:25 AM |
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Why Did Darryl Die?
NY Times Editorial on Conditions
August 28, 2008
Two
years after a child died there, the Justice Department is conducting a
much-needed investigation of New York’s Tryon Boys Residential Center,
a juvenile facility in upstate Fulton County. The investigation could
take a year or more to complete. But it has already shined a klieg
light on disastrous juvenile justice policies, not just in New York,
but all across the country.
All
too often, juvenile justice facilities are operated by workers who have
not been trained to handle the mentally ill children who make up much
of the caseload. Facilities also overuse dangerous restraint and
disciplinary practices in which children are handcuffed, hog tied,
bound to chairs or wrestled to the floor and held down.
According to
grand jury testimony, staff members at the Tryon Boys facility used the
so-called prone restraint strategy against Darryl Thompson, an
emotionally disturbed 15-year-old. He is said by the medical examiner
to have died of arrhythmia.
The two
large-framed men who forced Darryl onto the floor and held him there
with their bodies say that they had no choice because the child was
agitated and flailing about. There is no excuse for their failure to
begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation immediately after Darryl’s heart
stopped. According to state officials, all three staff members who were
present had been trained in C.P.R. and were required to administer it.
None did.
The medical examiner labeled the death a homicide, but the grand jury declined to indict the two workers.
The
Justice Department will not say why it is now investigating Tryon, but
the problems there clearly have not ended. This summer, according to
state officials, a staff member was caught on videotape punching a
handcuffed child in the face.
Gladys
Carrión, the reform-minded commissioner of New York’s Office of
Children and Family Services, took office soon after Darryl’s death.
She has been struggling ever since to move New York away from a
prison-style juvenile justice system that relies mainly on force toward
one that focuses on rehabilitation. Like reformers elsewhere, she is
encountering stiff resistance from the unions that represent the
facilities’ staff.
To
remake the system, New York State will need to downsize some
facilities. It will need to hire more mental health professionals and
retrain current staff members, some of whom have been doing business
the bad-old way for 25 years or more. The state needs to help cities
and towns develop community-based treatment programs. New York City is
sensibly moving in that direction. New York and all states have a
responsibility to protect children, including those who have committed
crimes.
Sarah Bryer, Director
National Juvenile Justice Network
202/467-0864 x 105
cell: 202/714-1162
www.njjn.org
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Last Updated ( Dec 06, 2008 at 07:16 PM )
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