EDITOR'S NOTE: For more than a year, Associate Editor Mary Hargrove investigated allegations of abuse and mismanagement involving the state Division of Youth Services and the delinquent children placed in its care. The results are detailed in a six-part series that started Sunday, June 14, 1998. Some articles describe sexual acts and contain language that readers may find offensive.

For three weeks, the series of articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette examined what happens to children declared delinquent and placed in the custody of the state Division of Youth Services. The Democrat-Gazette has since been following developments in the division, and those articles are under Reaction and followup.

        "Welcome to hell": Part I
        "Welcome to hell": Part II
        "Welcome to hell": Part III
        A laundry list of problems

Day 2, Monday, June 15: He stole two packages of cigarettes, violated probation and became a ward of the state. For 55 days, the 16-year-old says he witnessed physical assaults and various forms of abuse. And then, he says, it happened to him.

        Terror in lockup: Part I
        Terror in lockup: Part II
        Terror in lockup: Part III
        In a room of killers and thieves, teachers see a ray of hope

Day 3, Sunday, June 21: The Alexander Youth Services Center replaced the old Pine Bluff facility for delinquent children. The Pine Bluff center was closed after allegations of abuse and a successful federal lawsuit. But the new center has been plagued by widespread physical abuse and a staff unequipped to handle out-of-control teen-agers.

        Kids, chaos and cover-ups
        Auditor finds safety, security problems
        Quiet night goes 'haywire'

Day 4, Monday, June 22: Wilderness camps at Colt and Mansfield were expected to offer an alternative to locking up young serious offenders. The state recently canceled its contract with Associated Marine Institutes of Florida to operate those camps.

        Wilderness camp woes

Day 5, Sunday, June 28: A new director at the Division of Youth Services takes the helm of a troubled agency. And a judge shows what rural counties can do to solve their own delinquency problems.

        Tangles, troubles: Time for change
        One rural judge's approach: Keeping kids close to home
        At host homes, residents open doors, hearts to troubled kids
        School of last chances

Day 6, Monday, June 29: What's in store for the delinquents of the future? Will children be prosecuted younger and their sentences extended for years? The debate on how to punish kids who kill heats up.

        The kids and the courts
        Making the time fit the crime

Photos

       

OTHERS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS SERIES: This series of articles was edited by J.E. Beazley, Frank Fellone, Ray Hobbs, Alyson Hoge, Bob Lutgen, Rhonda Owen, Griffin Smith, jr., Glen Chase and Sandra Tyler; with photographs by Stephen B. Thornton, Steve Keesee and Karl Stolleis; photo editing by Barry Arthur and John Sykes; graphics by Kirk Montgomery and Alex Cameron; and page design by Ray White.

Reaction and followup

Monday, May 10, 1999: