Another Attorney safely sitting behind a desk

Nothing wrong with disability advocates, but I love these attorneys telling direct care staff at secure juvenile facilities what tools  they should have at their disposal.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — An investigation into a New Hampshire juvenile detention center revealed a pattern of “troubling practices” in how workers at the facility treated inmates, according to a report by a disabilities rights organization.Officials at New Hampshire’s Disabilities Rights Center said that they found a number of instances in which excessive force was used in restraining children at the John H. Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.The report, which examined the records of more than a 100 kids held at the center since August 2009, stated that 42 percent of inmates were restrained during their stay.

Among those restraint incidents, center staff used what the DRC said was “excessive force” 53 percent of the time and said that “it is likely that over half” of the restraints involved what is known as a prone restraint.”

Comments: The DRC’s report deals with more information and findings than what will be addressed here including allegations that the staff at the juvenile facility used excessive force and were restraining youths not because it was necessary to do so, but more as a power play.   This site in no way condones the use of unnecessary or excessive force. We do not have the facts and so have no opinion on the accuracy of these allegations put forth by the DRC.  

However there are some misstatements in the article and the DRC’s report that we will address: 

1. First the insinuation that all prone restraints are the same.  Prone restraint is not a single technique as there are many ways to hold a person. 

2. Second the misstatement that by placing a child face-down you necessarily must restrict their breathing.”

Response. There are prone restraints that do not restrict breathing and there are non-prone holds that do restrict breathing.  

Here are some comments from readers:

Restrainthis: Staff take too much ABUSE from these juveniles. Staff have been working continuously ALONE & w/ limited staff (due 2 staff being fired) & when they restrain a JUVENILE they dont use force if it is not needed! It’s true-the staff take NO pleasure in restraining them. Y would they 2 want to b fired.

Unbelievable603: There are kids there that have…absolutely so I dont disagree entirely with you but please also understand there are kids there who have done bad, or are uncontrollable who have NOT done physical harm. I was never in trouble for any act of violence, drugs, or alcohol…yet I ended up @ YDSU in concord for awhile. . . I assure you that there are some guards & some situations that get a whole lot more physical than they should.

Dishes 420: as a past ‘patient’ in this ydc, I can say some guards are restraint happy. A small percentage of guards hired feel the need to dominate/bully the ‘patients’ at will.However, that does not speak for everyone that works there. Restraint is a vital and important part of a detention center. Its the only way they have to restore order. A lot (not all) of the children involved in detention centers tend to show defiance to authority and are more than willing to show off when they have an audience.

Brian C: Juvenile Detention Center, doesn’t sound like the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, to me.

SWalesPhoto: You have to have done something pretty bad numerous times to end up at YDC. Therapeutic Holds are a bummer for everyone, but if a kid is going to spit, punch, throw things, and attack, well then workers are left with few options. Let’s not forget these kids are not at their own homes because their parents cannot control their behavior.

Bobby42: This is just the start of these kids reoffending when they become adults and end up in prison. If the DRC thinks they could do better then I say be their guest.

Dilsmith82: I suggest that the people who conducted this study spend a couple of weeks in there controlling these juveniles. They did not get there by having a bad day! They have proven they care not for society or the laws we live by. Many will be incarcerated for most of their adult life also. Are they too rough in state prison also?

Click here to view the entire story and the rest of the comments.

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One Response to Another Attorney safely sitting behind a desk

  1. mcnutt says:

    i was a very long time resident of all of the above mentioned detention center’s mostly ydc and a few times ydsu all assault related charges untill i aged out and was put on a plane to go live in florida with my still drug adicted and very abusive mother who kicked me out of the house while my boyfriend was strangeling me with a phone cord and bashing me in the face with the phone every relationship ive been in since then has been abusive and my thanks gos out 2 the state of N.H. because u people raised me and with all the ignorance and controling attitudes i’m hearing on here its no wonder your being worked to death you stick us on all these drugs that alter the chemistry of our brains and cause all kinds of health problems before we even have a chance to grow and learn coping skills maybe if you show try to show these kids some love and compassion instead of tryin to take the only control they have left you might see some results stop labeling them all kinds of crap and making them feel like they are not normal human beings teach them how to love by showing them love if you keep telling these kids 0 tolerance and level 0 what do you think they start to feel like and what do they have to lose whats few chokeholds, broken bones and concusions compared to your dignity self esteem sorry about my punctuation i was so busy trying to keep my soul from bein sucked out that i didnt get much of an education but since i’m an adult i have control of my suroundings and im not as crazy as you people led me to believe and i pray that these children find the same god that i worship and not beast who leads you people to thinking what your doing is is right you dont teach these helpless kids not to put theyre hands on people by putting your hands on them but i guess you have your form of abuse and our parents have theyres asserting to much authority is not good because you get the mark of cain ” caos out of order ” but thats the way the system is designed by the satanists who run this country i would say good luck but i believe in god “Jah Bless ” and remember any unwanted touch is assault

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