Team of inspectors planned to curb abuse reformatories

Monday, June 21, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A committee of state lawmakers is recommending that the 2005 Legislature create a team of inspectors to make sure that juveniles are not being abused in state reformatories.

The recommendation is one of the ways the state is responding to a federal team's discovery two years ago that boys were being mistreated, even beaten, at the state reformatory in Elko.

"Our concern is to make sure these juveniles are being treated fairly," Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said Friday at a meeting of the Legislative Subcommittee to Study the Juvenile Justice System.

The subcommittee adopted a recommendation to create a team of institutional inspectors to examine state and local government juvenile detention centers and court-ordered residential placements.

The original suggestion came from the Nevada District Judges Association, which recommended the inspection team be created under the governor's office and allow them to examine both juvenile and adult prisons.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Sparks, chairwoman of the subcommittee, said the recommendation should be limited to juvenile facilities. The subcommittee is examining juvenile laws only, she said.

Leslie also said there was an "inherent conflict" in placing the inspectors in the governor's office since his administration is the one responsible for operating the juvenile detention centers.

She suggested, and the committee agreed, that the unit should be placed under the wing of the Legislature and limited to inspecting juvenile programs.

Anderson agreed but wanted the inspectors to look into the adult prisons also.

The judges association said a number of the judges were "concerned about the recent occurrences at the Nevada Youth Training Center, which has resulted in an agreement with the federal government to improve such facility."

The proposed team would make unannounced inspections and speak privately with inmates, staff or others to see that state and federal standards are being complied with.

The civil rights section of the Justice Department conducted an inspection in February 2002 of the training center in Elko and found some of the teens there had been beaten, kicked and had their heads smashed into doors by staff. The report, issued in November 2002, also noted the boys "frequently were subjected to verbal abuse, in which their race, family, physical appearance and stature, intelligence or perceived sexual orientation were aggressively attacked."

At least two staff members were fired and a number of corrections were made. One of the problems was insufficient staff. The Legislature approved 23 new staff members and added mental health services.

The subcommittee rejected a recommendation from the ACLU of Nevada to raise the age at which a juvenile can be certified by a judge as an adult for a criminal offense. The state allows juveniles as young as 14 to be certified to stand trial as an adult. The ACLU wanted that raised to 16 years of age.