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| Justice Department OKs changes at Maxey boy's lockup |
| By AP |
| Published: 01/17/2005 |
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The U.S. Justice Department has approved changes at Michigan's W.J. Maxey Training School after citing the juvenile detention center for abusive restraint and other practices. On Jan. 6, the department sent a memo to the Michigan Family Independence Agency and Attorney General Mike Cox, spelling out the state's promises to do better in the management, education, and physical and mental health care. Maxey's population peaked at more than 560 in the mid-1990s but now averages below its capacity of 240 youths ages 12 to 21. It is in Livingston County's Green Oak Township, south of Brighton. An April 2004 Justice Department report said Maxey improperly restrained and isolated residents, was understaffed and had inadequate special education and mental health programs. "The key to this one is that we're one of the only places that they've investigated that didn't have to have a monitor," said Leonard Dixon, director of juvenile justice for the state's welfare agency. Dixon, also president of the National Juvenile Detention Association, said many of the juvenile facilities across the country that have drawn federal investigators' attention have had federal monitors appointed to oversee improvements. Most of the changes at Maxey had been in the works for years before Dixon was appointed to his post in October. They include a $42-million complex to house 180 youths, many of them sex offenders, that opened in 2002. "New buildings make a big difference. The environment makes a major difference," Dixon told the Detroit Free Press. The new complex is designed so staff members can easily see what is happening in common areas and hallways. Youths wear electronic tethers so computers can monitor their whereabouts constantly. There are 230 cameras that cover virtually every hall and room at Maxey, except for individual units that juveniles sleep in, said campus director Derek Hitchcock. "You can't get away with anything," Hitchcock said. "Once staff and the kids understood that, everything improved." Movies shown to youths now are centrally screened and controlled before being displayed on the television monitors in common rooms. No R-rated moves are allowed. Maxey's education program was accredited last year, and youths there can graduate with diplomas, Hitchcock said. Some get general equivalency degree certificates, and others work on community college classes. Maxey's vocational school includes a graphic-arts program and a Robo Room, where youths learn how to operate five robots donated by Motoman Inc., a robotics company based in Dayton, Ohio. A new culinary-arts school is opening soon, and the training school already puts on plays for a dinner-theater program. |
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