US opens probe into reports of abuse in juvenile prisons of Texas
The US Justice Department says it is investigating reports of physical violence, sexual abuse, and mistreatment of children at juvenile detention facilities in Texas.
The US assistant attorney general for civil rights, Kristen Clarke, said on Wednesday that the inquiries will focus on five secure juvenile facilities across the entire state.
The investigation, she said, was prompted by "an extensive review of publicly available information" as well as information provided by social media posts and conversations with people involved in local prison systems.
The reports reveal instances of brutal violence and sexual abuse, neglect of the mentally ill, and other serious improprieties in the facilities.
Clarke said, at least 11 staff members of Texas facilities have been arrested for sexually abusing children in their care.
She said, in one incident from last February, staff allegedly "pepper-sprayed a child and placed him in full mechanical restraints...and then body-slammed him onto a bed."
According to Clarke, the “investigation will focus on whether there is a pattern or practice of physical or sexual abuse of children in Texas’s secure facilities.”
“No child who was sent to a Texas facility for treatment and rehabilitation should be subjected to violence and abuse, nor denied basic services,” she added.
Texas is also facing other civil lawsuits filed by the justice department over the state’s executive order restricting the travel of migrants.
The investigation into the juvenile prisons is the latest in a series of investigations into systematic patterns of abuse that the justice department has launched in recent months into police departments and jails across the United States.
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