MD. Little improvement at youth facility since fatal attack

A year after a teacher was raped and killed at a Prince George’s County youth detention center, many of the conditions that contributed to her death still persist, according to the watchdog that monitors the state’s juvenile justice system.A 14-year-old boy is charged with sexually assaulting, beating and strangling 65-year-old Hannah Wheeling at the Cheltenham Youth Facility last February. The report says the two Cheltenham cottages that house the older and more challenging youth hold 60 percent more juveniles than their DJS-stated capacity.

And the furniture in those cottages is “aged, broken, torn and potentially dangerous,” said the report, which noted that “broken furniture parts could be used as weapons” and “contraband is easily hidden in the torn cushions.”

The report also criticized the department for persistent staff shortages, writing that youth were left locked in cells because of insufficient supervision and “youth spend many hours sitting idly” rather than receiving instruction.

Security adjustments at Cheltenham after Wheeling’s death include the enhanced lighting on the campus, panic buttons installed at the school, tighter entrance and exit protocols and radios for all staff. But classrooms still lack security cameras and staff have not been given personal distress alarms, the report says.

ebabay@washingtonexaminer.com

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime-punishment/2011/02/report-little-improvement-youth-facility-fatal-attack#ixzz1EijnvQaS

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