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| Deal lets lawyers see juveniles at training schools |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/24/2005 |
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Mississippi will allow juveniles at training schools in Hinds and Marion counties to have access to attorneys who are monitoring living conditions at the centers. The deal was reached this past week between the Department of Human Services and attorneys who filed a class action suit against operations of the Oakley school in Raymond and the Columbia school in Marion County. Under the settlement, lawyers can visit children to discuss their treatment, said David Miller, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice. Before the deal, only court-appointed attorneys were allowed on the training school grounds. "While this improves access, there is still a lot of work to do about the systemic conditions," Miller said. The class-action suit was filed after a mother saw bruises on her son while visiting him at Columbia. She said a school administrator would not allow her son to meet with attorneys on campus without a court order. The Center for Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama, filed the suit last year on behalf of a 14-year-old boy in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. The suit came after the U.S. Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit in 2003 against the state over conditions at the juvenile facilities. The Justice Department said children were routinely hit, shackled to poles, sprayed with pepper spray while in restraints, and hog-tied in a cell known as the "dark room." Also, an investigation determined staff sometimes forced girls suffering from heat exhaustion to eat their own vomit. The Justice Department suit is expected to be heard in December. |
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