Batesville juvenile center used for local youthful offenders

wireready_06-08-2017-10-29-47_08496_scalesofjustice


News from locations like Batesville, Jonesboro, Conway and Danville may not seem directly connected to the Twin Lakes Area. But for those with connections to juvenile lockup facilities, known as treatment centers, the roads lead back quickly to North Central Arkansas.

These locations are home to four of the state’s seven juvenile lockup facilities and are the ones used to house youthful offenders from North Central Arkansas.

In May, the Batesville site made headlines when the U.S. government indicted three additional former officers for mistreatment of juveniles. This development followed news in April when two former supervisors at the center pled guilty to conspiring to assault inmates. The charges date back to incidents at the White River Juvenile Detention Center between 2012 and 2013.

Baxter County Juvenile Services Director Cheryl Green says at one point, youthful offenders from this area were no longer sent to the Batesville center.


Listen:

 

right-click to download mp3

Green says when juvenile services began using the Batesville facility again, it was under a new administration and improved guidelines. She says the decision was also made to pull out of the Danville center temporarily.

Green says when juvenile offenders return to Baxter County, exit interviews are conducted with them regarding their stay in lockup facilities. Staff seek information regarding not just the employees at the lockup facilities, but how the offenders were treated by other inmates. But she says despite the juveniles being forthcoming, they did not learn about the issues at Batesville and Danville until notified by the state.

While the headline making cases are just now closing with the sentencing phase, Green says the staffing issues were cleaned up and appropriately corrected about two years ago. However, she says juvenile services officials are aware the center remains carefully monitored.

She says a recent contact from the White River Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville to the Baxter County Juvenile Services office followed a state audit. Green says there wasn’t a great deal of new information in the exchange in the inservice training as the Batesville education coordinator addressed paperwork and processes with local juvenile officers. But she says from the exchange it was evident the Batesville facility remains under close scrutiny.

In part two of our series, Green addresses the ages of offenders who may be sent to a juvenile lockup facility that is surprisingly very young and why they are sent to these centers.

WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI