The Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville, LA locked teens, some with serious mental illness, in round-the-clock solitary confinement for weeks on end, deprived them of an education, in violation of state and federal law, shackled them with handcuffs and leg irons when they were let out to shower, and gave them little more than meals slid through slots in their doors, reports NBC News via Pro Publica and The Marshall Project. Guards responded to transgressions with violence, according to incident reports obtained through a public records request. Three slammed door hatches on teens’ hands. One struck a boy with his knee and fired pepper spray into a teen’s cell, leaving him coughing and vomiting.
While conditions have improved in recent months, with some — but not all — teens now allowed out of their cells during the day, and math and English instruction now being offered, the facility is still providing less education than the law requires and youths are still being shackled when they leave the common area in front of their cells. Experts say that treating kids like hardened criminals is inhumane and, in some cases, unconstitutional. It’s also counterproductive, often leading to more bad behavior. State Rep. Royce Duplessis, a New Orleans Democrat who chairs the juvenile justice oversight commission filed a bill that would restrict the use of solitary confinement in juvenile facilities to four hours at a time, require authorities to promptly notify the youth’s parents and attorney and require the juvenile justice agency to track its use.
