The Southern Poverty Law Center today (July 11, 200&) sued the state of
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, also seeks to force the state to provide federally required mental health and rehabilitative treatment to girls confined at
The suit was filed on behalf of six girls ranging in age from 13 to 17. All suffer from mental illness and all were committed to
"Our state must stop sponsoring child abuse," said Sheila Bedi, director of the SPLC's Mississippi Youth Justice Project, based in Jackson, Miss. "Girls at Columbia Training School not only are being routinely abused, humiliated and injured, they are being denied the most basic services that the law requires.
"We filed this lawsuit reluctantly after several failed attempts to negotiate with the state. We would much rather see the state's resources go toward caring for our children than defending the indefensible."
Mississippi Protection and Advocacy Inc., a congressionally authorized nonprofit organization that enforces the civil rights of people with disabilities, is also a plaintiff in the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that:
In an apparent response to unsubstantiated allegations that they planned to escape, five of the plaintiffs were shackled for 12 hours a day for periods ranging from eight days to approximately a month. They were required to eat, attend school, use the bathroom, participate in recreational activities and visit with their families while wearing shackles around their ankles. This punitive shackling, which violated
One girl was sexually assaulted by a male employee of the facility who kissed and fondled her against her will while she was confined in a segregated area. She reported the assault but was never informed of the results of an investigation and never received
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