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| "Arkansas' Voice on the Internet" | Previous Features / Investigations |
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 Legislators tour Youth Services Center ERICA WERNER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Representatives Sue Madison and Henry "Hank" Wilkins IV, had heard a lot about conditions at the Youth Services Center in Alexander. Wednesday afternoon, they paid an unannounced visit to see for themselves. Madison, a Democrat from Fayetteville who chairs the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, and Wilkins, a Democrat from Pine Bluff who chairs the children and youth subcommittee, arrived at the locked gates of the juvenile jail shortly after 3:30 p.m. with a handful of other legislators, including John M. Lewellen, D-Little Rock, John A. Eason, D-Marianna and Lindbergh H. Thomas, D-Grady. Their first stop was the security booth, where they disputed the guards' refusal to allow media into the prison. When a compromise was reached that prohibited photos of the youth in the facility, Madison, Wilkins and the others were allowed through the gates. A June series in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported problems at the Alexander facility, part of the Youth Services Division of the state Department of Human Services. The problems included alleged abuse, lack of space and insufficient rehabilitation. The center houses about 150 kids for stays of months or years. Some are serious offenders. Madison's committee and a Senate interim committee held hearings on those and other issues in the fall, and Madison is backing legislation to correct some problems. Wilkins is also looking for legislative solutions, he said Wednesday. He signed up Madison and other colleagues for the impromptu tour after some center employees approached him to discuss problems, including unsanitary conditions and overcrowding. An little over an hour into the tour Wednesday, after trailing through the infirmary, the girls' dorm, the cafeteria and a boys' dorm, Wilkins said the employees he talked to had it exactly right. "They're on target," he said. "There's lots of needs here. I don't think the facilities are adequate." Herman Hutton, the assistant facilities director who led the tour, could only nod his head in agreement. A few minutes earlier, wandering into the library, Madison shook her head at the unswept floors and the stacks of boxes in one corner. She was displeased to hear that the library's encyclopedias were in those boxes, not out on the shelves, and that there was no librarian. As for the boxes themselves, "Is that a violation of fire codes?" Madison asked Hutton. "That's a good question," he said. "We need to straighten out this library situation," Madison said. The library and education classes at the center are run by a private company, Rivendell Management Co. Next, the group headed for the girls' dorm, where all the girls sent to the facility live together, regardless of the severity of their offenses. Red paper hearts acted as name tags on the locked doors of the rooms. Representatives peered through the small windows to see the barren furnishings. Madison, Wilkins and the others arrived at the cafeteria just as it was starting to fill up with teens in blue pants and white shirts who noisily lined up for sausages, Brussells sprouts and canned peaches. Wilkins asked one how the food was, and he responded, "Good. You ought to try some." Wilkins laughed at that, but most of what he and Madison were seeing and hearing made them frown:  The filthy library. Hutton's comment that the center's staff is short 60 people. The sight of mattresses on the floor in the Mac cottage, where youths 15 and under live. The youths in the cafeteria who complained about rats in their rooms.Outside the Mac cottage, regrouping before a tour of the serious offenders' unit, Wilkins rattled off a few things it would take to turn the center around. Financial support from the state is key, Wilkins said, and accountability, and good management. "And," he added, "maybe even sticking our nose in like we're doing now." This article was published on Thursday, February 18, 1999 Copyright, permissions and privacy policy Copyright © 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. |
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