Overcrowding spurs youth lockup changes

County limits intake after abuse allegations

LITTLE ROCK — A surge of incarcerated children from around Arkansas pushed Pulaski County’s juvenile lockup beyond its capacity earlier this year, creating what a state inspector deemed dangerous conditions for detained youths.

The overcrowding came to light after allegations of sexual misconduct involving an employee at the facility. The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into the misconduct claims in July. Around the same time, youths held for agencies and courts outside of Pulaski County were rapidly moved out of the jail.

The influx of children from outside of Pulaski County began in July 2021, according to jail census records obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette through an Arkansas Freedom of Information request. Within a year, records indicated the Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center was housing up to 45 children a day — 13 more than its capacity.

Jail staff attributed the spike to several factors including changes in a federal youth incarceration law, the effects of the pandemic on the criminal justice system and a general lack of space in Arkansas jails. With officials in other parts of the state struggling to find beds for children, administrators at the Pulaski County facility said they began accepting more transfers from courts outside of Pulaski County and the state Division of Youth Services.

After learning the facility was understaffed and overcapacity, Pulaski County administrators in late July and August “took immediate action to bring the facility back to capacity” by removing out-of-county children who were not held on a court order, county officials said in a statement.

As the jail’s population peaked this summer, Brooke Digby, a juvenile ombudsman, raised concerns in an email to another state official that administrators were housing youths in unsecured areas of the facility and failing to provide proper bedding. She also alleged that staff was “overloading the facility beyond its rated capacity.” Conditions at the jail, Digby claimed, had led to her receiving “multiple reports of sexual misconduct / rape by staff and youth.”

“A lot of this information isn’t being reported by JDC staff, is reported days late, or isn’t being reported accurately,” claimed Digby in a July 21 email to Brooke Steen, Juvenile Justice Division director for the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts, obtained through an Arkansas Freedom of Information request.

In a June 9 email sent to Ronald Routh, director of the juvenile lockup, Digby wrote she had heard some detained children were sleeping “in a day room on the floor without any type of mat.”

Routh responded that staff provide children in the unit with blankets and 4-inch thick mattresses. Routh claimed many of the children decline to sleep on cots offered by the facility.

Routh said the children in the room had access to showers and a private bathroom.

Rodney Shepherd, deputy director of the Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center, said in an early November statement to the Democrat-Gazette that the facility provides each youth with a sleeping mat.

When bunks are not available, staff members offer children cots on which to place their mats.

The facility has housed children in two rooms that did not have immediate access to a bathroom, according to Shepherd. To use a toilet, Shepherd said youths in these rooms had to notify a detention center employee who could take them to the staff restroom. Shepherd clarified in a follow-up request for comment that staff members were available to escort children to the restroom. Youths in these rooms had access to coolers with ice and water, Shepherd said.

Existing juvenile detention facilities must provide all rooms with access to an above-floor-level toilet, a wash basin, shower facilities and an above-floor-level bed, according to standards used by the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Review Committees.

Shepherd said the facility stopped accepting requests to hold out-of-county juveniles in August. This decision came after the detention center exceeded the 32-inmate capacity for several weeks in 2022, according to census records. He said the facility tries to maintain a ratio of six juveniles per staff member.

As of the latest available figures on Nov. 7, the facility was housing 11 juveniles.

Four days after Digby sent her July email raising concerns about conditions at the facility, Kristin Knox, spokesperson for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed the office had opened an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Pulaski County officials said the Sheriff’s Office received a report from the Arkansas State Police alleging an employee had committed sexual misconduct. The employee was placed on paid administrative leave while the claims were under investigation.

As of Nov. 21, the Sheriff’s Office had turned the findings of their investigation over to the prosecuting attorney’s office. Law enforcement officials are waiting to hear whether attorneys would press charges, Lt. Cody Burk, spokesman for the agency, said.

Finding beds for children charged as adults can be more difficult than placing ones facing lesser charges, said Holly Foster, director of the Benton County Juvenile Detention Center. This means counties with already limited resources may have had to search farther afield for places to house youths pulled out adult jails after the provisions of the reform act went into effect.

Shepherd said the strain the coronavirus pandemic placed on lockups in smaller counties may have also contributed to the increase in youths at the Pulaski County facility.

At least one Arkansas juvenile detention center has not seen a population spike related to the pandemic or changes in federal regulations. Christopher Tinsley, director of juvenile detention for Washington County, said in October that his facility did not see an increase in juveniles held for out-ofcounty courts or the Division of Youth Services last year. In email statement, Tinsley noted his facility charges outside counties $92 a day to hold their juveniles, which is $12 more than the Pulaski County facility.