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| Sex-abuse rate at juvenile center eyed |
| By pittsburghlive.com |
| Published: 01/08/2010 |
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State officials plan to investigate why a Cambria County juvenile center had one of the highest rates of resident sex abuse among 200 centers surveyed for a federal study released Thursday. Of 12 youths questioned at Cresson Secure Treatment Unit, about 10 miles southeast of Altoona, a third reported some kind of sex abuse, according to a Department of Justice study. Eight other Pennsylvania centers had reports of sex abuse -- ranging from kissing to forced intercourse -- at or below the 12 percent national rate. "Cresson is dealing with a very tough population. They have some of the most difficult kids," said Andy Snyder, the state's director of juvenile justice services. "You have a facility that had some sex offenders in there ... as well as some mental health kids and kids whose IQs are rather low. Their interpretations of questions sometimes skew what the results could be." From June 2008 to April 2009, the Bureau of Justice Statistics took only reports, anonymously, from residents sentenced to long-term placement facilities. A 2003 federal law aiming to end prison rape mandated this first-of-its-kind survey. Most respondents were ages 13 to 21, study leader Allen J. Beck said. State officials will review hiring there and meet with residents again to make sure they did not misunderstand questions, Snyder said. The survey did not include facilities such as Allegheny County's Shuman Juvenile Detention Center, where most students are awaiting court appearances and stay on average only 15 to 18 days. Summit Academy in Butler County had the lowest abuse-report rate in the state, at 3.8 percent. New Castle Youth Development Center had a rate of 6.9 percent; George Jr. Republic in Grove City had a rate of 11.7 percent. Nationwide 3,220 residents reported some kind of abuse, most of which came from staff members. About 40 percent of those alleged incidents involved coercion. That number was surprisingly high because of the abuse youths reported from caretakers, Beck said. Only about 4.5 percent of adult prisoners report sex abuse in similar surveys, less than a third of the juvenile rate, he said. Read More. |
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