T’bonne’s Bayou Grace helping locals succeed
February 9, 2010Thursday, Feb. 11
February 11, 2010Federal agents with the U.S. Justice Department have begun an investigation into the Terrebonne Parish Juvenile Justice Center’s conditions and procedures.
The investigation will not focus on last year’s sex-for-snacks scandal, although that incident may have played a role in the Justice Department’s decision to review of the facility, according to parish officials.
The investigation will not have any criminal consequences, but they could issue a court-ordered mandate if they decide the justice center’s procedures or facilities are severely lacking.
“They have a pretty standard procedure. They will come in and look at the conditions of the facility. They will look at the policies, procedures and processes we have to ensure the safety of the youths in the facility” said the parish’s new public safety director, Ralph Mitchell. “It’s a top to bottom investigation.”
According to Parish President Michel Claudet’s office, parish officials met with the Justice Department on Jan. 25 to discuss the investigation and to offer their cooperation.
“We met with them and gave them full access to the facility, which apparently doesn’t happen in some places without a court order,” said Mitchell. “Once they show up at the facility, they ask for cooperation at the facility and to have access to directors, employees and people that are in the facilities to ask questions.”
The justice department declined to answer question regarding the case’s impetus to both parish officials and the Tri-Parish Times.
“I really can’t say anything about the case,” said Alejandro Miyar, a spokesperson with the Justice Department. “We have said they’re cooperating, which is like a compliment.”
Mitchell said that the parish had asked if the investigation was the result of a particular incident, but was given no answer.
“The way the go through things, it could be because of a specific incident or it could be because of sort of random audit that they do of facilities such as this,” Mitchell said.
Last year, six guards at the juvenile center were arrested for allegedly exchanging sexual favors with female inmates for snacks and privileges, but that case has not yet gone to trial. The father of one of the victims has also filed suit for an unspecified amount of monetary damages.
The new investigation could give political traction to efforts to build a new juvenile justice center, which has a reputation for being out of date and overcrowded. Plans for a new facility have stalled because the parish council has skirmished over the land Claudet would like to build it on.
Mitchell expects the Justice Department to finish their investigation some time this summer and release a report on their findings in the fall.
“The beauty of it is, by virtue of having this, they’re bringing down two pretty renowned experts in the field of juvenile justice. And we’ll have access to them to be able to talk about issues with them and get their ideas and suggestions for how we can make things better,” said Mitchell. “It’s actually going to provide us something that would cost us a lot of money in another situation.”
