Former youth facility workers face charges

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 30, 2001 | 11:26 a.m.

The arrest of two former staff members on sex-related charges Wednesday may be only the beginning of problems for the Summit View Youth Correctional Facility, the privately run prison for the state's worst juvenile offenders.

Jennifer Burkley, 22, will appear in North Las Vegas Justice Court Wednesday after being charged with five counts of sexual contact with a prisoner and one count of oppression under the color of office.

Gloria Kim, 24, is expected to enter a plea agreement Sept. 12 after being charged with one count of sexual contact with a prisoner and one count of oppression under the color of office.

Their alleged victims were inmates, ages 17 and 18.

Nearly 3,000 pages of internal documents obtained by the Sun recorded not only allegations of sexual misconduct, but also fights among inmates, escapes and attempted escapes and suicide attempts.

Also included in the reports are inmate surveys in which they complain about favoritism, racial bias, small meals and fear of other inmates and staff members.

As a result of the problems, state officials in May notified Youth Services International, the company that operates Summit View, that its contract was in jeopardy. A month later, an uprising by 20 inmates caused more than $12,000 in damage.

Willie Smith, deputy administrator for the state's youth correctional services, was out of town this morning and unavailable for comment. Calls to Youth Services International were not returned, and no one answered the phone at Summit View Wednesday evening or this morning.

The documents also do not shed light on the status of the company's contract with the state.

The documents do show sexual allegations surfacing as early as May. According to an internal Summit View memo dated May 15, prison officials launched an investigation after an inmate told his parole officer that he and two other youths were engaging in sexual relations with staff members.

Metro Police said they began investigating Burkley and Kim in May.

The boy said the acts typically took place at night within the facility's laundry room or in their cells, and identified two staff members as an Asian and a black woman.

Burkley is black, and Kim is Asian. The Summit View documents have all names deleted.

Metro Police Lt. Tom Monahan said he didn't know whether the boys had been threatened, but said they could have felt threatened merely because they were incarcerated and being supervised by the women.

He added there are no other sex-related investigations taking place at the facility.

The Summit View memo says the boy who instigated the investigation "was very forward with this information, but is adamant he is not a snitch and probably will not cooperate with any investigation."

Documents dated May 19 note that a female youth worker resigned voluntarily and say there had been past allegations made about her, though they do not specify what type.

The Sun received no documents indicating the results of any internal investigations.

But the sexual misconduct appears to have been two-sided.

Between June 1, 2000, and July 31, 2001, staff members documented a number of incidents in which inmates exposed themselves to staff members, sexually harassed them verbally or approached them for dates.

In five of the cases, the youths were put into isolation units.

Facility administrators also placed a staff member or staff members on administrative leave on two different occasions. In each case, another staff member alleged they had been sexually harassed.

The prison has suffered from staffing and leadership problems since its opening in June 2000. Five months after its opening, it already had an 80 percent turnover of staff. In its 15 months in existence, it has had four administrators.

The prison's problems first came to public light after the inmate uprising on June 1, when 20 teens went to the roof for hours, where they taunted police and threw pieces of an air conditioning unit and other debris to the ground.

The inmates told their attorneys they were upset about a number of things at the facility, including a lack of rehabilitative programming and shows of favoritism using sex, drugs and alcohol.

Most of the inmates have entered plea agreements, but the attorneys for three are arguing that their actions were justified by the prison's conditions and have demanded an investigation.

Last month two former employees submitted affidavits substantiating the boys' claims.

Summit View substance abuse counselor Sandra Houston alleged in her affidavit that one staff member was impregnated by a teenage inmate, another continued her relationship with a boy after he was released and a third was sent to an inmate's cell to appease him whenever he acted up.