COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The Department of Juvenile Justice may be unable to prevent “major disturbances” despite security changes following several gang-related riots at the main prison, state auditors said Thursday.
The agency remains understaffed; its officers are not properly trained; its security policies are outdated; and its police department is ineffective, according to a report by the Legislative Audit Council.
DJJ isn’t complying with a 2003 federal law designed to prevent prison rape, which includes minimum juvenile-to-staff ratios, and there’s no evidence the agency has even determined what it needs to comply, the report said.
Auditors also faulted DJJ for 2015 programs that encouraged employees to retire or resign, resulting in the loss of 26 much-needed, experienced officers, even though the positions are hard to fill. The programs jeopardized security while saving just $220,000, the report said.
Rep. Katie Arrington, R-Summerville, called the report “overwhelming to read and hear.”
“We are just failing,” she said at a House panel meeting with auditors and DJJ staff. “These are children.”
Agency director Sylvia Murray disagreed with the findings.
“We feel we are actually doing a good job,” she told the panel. “We’ve been working very hard to bring DJJ to a different level.”
There’s been no “major disturbance” since the February 2016 riot, she said, crediting that to “extensive” security changes.
Four riots at the Columbia prison in less than a year involved fire and destroyed property, but it was the one last February that got legislators’ attention. Charges against juveniles who rioted include attempted sexual assault and burglary for breaking into the girls’ dorm, attempted murder for trying to run someone over in a car and arson for setting toilet paper on fire.
Murray told legislators last year the agency’s increased security efforts included stricter discipline, installing glass that isn’t broken easily and sinks that can’t be ripped from walls, and housing juveniles based on risk. The agency also reported reducing contraband - anything prisoners are not supposed to have, from makeshift weapons to cellphones - through “head-to-toe” searches of juveniles after they meet with family and requiring staff to lock their car doors. It also began allowing its police force to carry pepper spray, but not correctional officers.
“The change over the last year has been nothing short of remarkable at DJJ,” agency spokesman Patrick Montgomery said Thursday. “DJJ staff and juveniles are and feel safer.”
But the report says a survey of DJJ employees found many didn’t believe the changes “markedly increased” safety and security at the main prison.
Auditors report DJJ’s police officers sometimes either didn’t respond to calls for assistance or there were no officers available. In an 84-day period last year, only one officer was working between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and there were four days when no officer worked that shift.
The report finds the police force - up to 19, as of Thursday - unnecessary, and says local law enforcement agencies should be called in when needed. It recommends disbanding the force and reassigning police officers to fill vacancies among correctional officers that supervise juvenile offenders.
Freddie Pough, DJJ’s inspector general, acknowledged the department has been undermanned. But he said the police officers serve a vital role of transporting juvenile offenders, and he noted they’re the only people on the 540-acre campus who are armed. He countered that local deputies should not be called in, saying each call behind the fence would take away from their work in the community.
The subcommittee’s chairman, GOP Rep. Eddie Tallon, said the agency clearly still has “a long way to go.”
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