PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
The following month, a youth
counselor slapped an inmate in
the face and then head-butted
another while saying, “Suck my
dick,” according to an incident
report filed by the state.
The state only learned of the
latter incident when a therapist
called the abuse hotline. The
guard and his supervisor failed
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
resulting report found the facility
to be seriously understaffed and
unsanitary, and that staff were
dismissive of grievances filed by
youths housed there. The average starting salary for youth care
workers was $17,680 and staff
turnover was high, according to
documents filed with the state.
An emergency state review in
“Staff often curse at youngsters, talk about their family
situations. There is an inappropriate use of force by
banging kids against the wall and taking them down.”
to notify state authorities, as required in the company’s contract.
The same month, a group of
boys handed a letter to one of the
state monitors noting “a bad bug
problem in our cafeteria,” including in the food. “Staff interviewed
stated youth had too small portions of food, the last group fed
got less,” read an email from a different monitor, Pamela Stillwell.
Jerry Blanton, then the state’s
top monitor at Thompson Academy, asked for a special audit
team to review the program. The
March found no evidence that
staff had been trained in the proper ways to restrain youth.
According to an email from a
department monitor regarding the
March evaluation: “There is nothing in training files for staff — no
training plans, no documentation of
any training regarding [restraints],
CPR and first aid, fire, riot and other emergency situations.”
Just as Blanton and others
from the state began documenting
problems, the facility administrator at Thompson Academy, Jasir
Diab, was requesting meetings
with Blanton’s superiors at the
state Department of Juvenile Jus-