WASHINGTON, June 21 (Xinhua) -- A juvenile detention center in eastern U.S. state Virginia has been charged with seriously abusing immigrant kids as young as 14 years old, local media reported Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed by the nonprofit Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, accused that young Latino immigrants held at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center "are subjected to unconstitutional conditions that shock the conscience, including violence by staff, abusive and excessive use of seclusion and restraints, and the denial of necessary mental health care."
The story was first reported by The Associated Press (AP), citing federal court filings that include multiple sworn statements from Latino teens jailed there for months or even years.
"Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me," said a Honduran immigrant who was sent there when he was 15 years old. "Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn't really move. ... They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on."
A former social worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told the AP that she saw kids there with bruises and broken bones they blamed on guards.
Many immigrant children were sent there after U.S. immigration authorities accused them of belonging to violent gangs including MS-13, local media reported. The center is one of only three juvenile detention facilities in the United States with federal contracts to provide "secure placement" for children who had problems at less-restrictive housing.
"The youth were being screened as gang-involved individuals. And then when they came into our care, and they were assessed by our clinical and case management staff ... they weren't necessarily identified as gang-involved individuals," said Kelsey Wong, a program director at the facility when testifying before a Senate subcommittee in April.
However, in court filings, the facility's lawyers have denied all allegations of physical abuse.