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NEW YORK---The New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union have called for wide-reaching reforms after Tuesday's ruling that the death of 15-year-old Darryl Thompson in a juvenile prison in New York State was a homicide.
Thompson died last Nov. 18 after being pinned to the floor by two guards while incarcerated at Tryon Residential Center, a Fulton County facility run by the state's Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).
According to the Fulton County District Attorney's office, the boy died shortly after an altercation with a member of the facility's staff about his loss of recreation privileges. He had been at Tryon since March 2006.
The autopsy report released this week found that Thompson apparently died from cardiac arrhythmia, brought on in part by a heart abnormality. Dr. Michael Sikirica, the pathologist, said that the stress from the altercation contributed to his death. He said that there was no sign of drugs in the teen's body and no evidence of excessive force.
A Grand Jury will decide in April if criminal charges should be filed against the two detention youth aides who have been on paid leave since the incident, Robert Murphy and John P. Johnson.
The investigation into the boy's death centers around the method of restraint used on the youth when he became "physically aggressive". He died in St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam hours after he had been restrained, incurring difficulty breathing immediately after being restrained.
According to Fulton County district attorney Louise Sira, it appears that the two aides were following procedures and that once Thompson was handcuffed, they backed off and left him resting on his side with other staff members.
OCFS has confirmed that staff members are taught to place youths face down and to lie across their backs while immobilizing their arms, the same method of restraint used at adult facilities for adult inmate and the disabled.
"There is a history of using force to punish and control teenagers in facilities like Tryon, which have historically been subject to inadequate oversight and little accountability," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU. "This puts children in danger. It is promising that there is new leadership in OCFS, and we look forward to working with the new Commissioner - because there's a lot that's broken. We need to need to reimagine how juvenile justice facilities work in the state of New York."
"Darryl Thompson's abuse was not an isolated incident," said Mie Lewis, staff attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project and the author of an ACLU report documenting abuses at juvenile prisons in New York State. "This use of force is part of a punitive culture within OCFS that sees kids as criminals first and children second. OCFS policy violates international human rights norms by allowing force to be used against children even in non-emergency situations."
The report, released in September 2006 by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, showed that there is virtually no oversight over institutions like Tryon Residential Center. The NYCLU and the ACLU have called for a number of reforms aimed at protecting children held in juvenile facilities, including closing youth prisons in favor of smaller homelike facilities closer to children's homes. The organizations have also urged the adoption of a bill that would create an Office of the Child Advocate to monitor OCFS facilities.
The ACLU's report on youth correctional facilities, Custody and Control, is available at aclu.org/custodyandcontrol. 2-21-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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