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| "Arkansas' Voice on the Internet" | Previous Features / Investigations |
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 Lawmakers accuse Youth Division of secrecy after center closed ELIZABETH MCFARLAND ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Two state lawmakers took a state agency division head to task Monday for not telling them he had closed a North Little Rock center where juvenile delinquents said they had been mistreated. State Rep. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, and state Sen. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, said they were concerned about the secrecy that appears to surround the Department of Human Services' Youth Services Division. But Department Director Richard Weiss said miscommunication was the problem, and there was no effort to be secretive. Division Director Paul Doramus shut down the observation and assessment detention center Wednesday. June 19, Gov. Mike Huckabee ordered the center closed within 60 days. He made the decision after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette disclosed physical abuse of children in the state's custody. The House Interim Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs and the Senate Interim Committee on Children and Youth have been holding hearings on who knew about the alleged abuses and how the knowledge was handled. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday at the state Capitol. The center's closing appeared to catch some high-level department staff off-guard. The day the center was shut down, news media were told the closing was still three to 10 days away. Madison and Ross, who chair the committees holding the hearings, wrote Doramus on Monday of their concerns. The day of the closing, they said, legislative staff asked the agency about the center but were given no indication it would be closed before the 60 days had passed. Reading about the closure in the Democrat-Gazette the next day "exacerbated a sense of concern regarding the openness of your agency and the 'secrecy' that appears to surround it," Madison and Ross wrote. "Why wouldn't all of your administrative personnel know when all kids would be removed from O&A? Why would we not be informed of the anticipated date of closure?" the letter asked. Doramus didn't return telephone calls. Weiss said media already had reported that the number of children in the center continued to dwindle as beds opened up at other facilities. He said the agency was also busy making a place for the two boys convicted last Tuesday in the shooting deaths of four students and a teacher at a Jonesboro middle school. "In hindsight, this was something we should have handled better, but again, it was just part of doing business. On Paul's behalf, he had his hands full trying to make sure that these notorious kids were properly taken care of," Weiss said. In a prepared statement, department spokesman Joe Quinn said there were "internal communication breakdowns" about the fact that the last of the youths had been removed from the center. Quinn said the last week was "an extremely busy time" for the division because of heightened security at the Alexander Youth Services Center, where the Jonesboro youths were taken. "The communication problems were simply the result of so much going on at one time," Quinn said. This article was published on Tuesday, August 18, 1998 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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