The Legislative Auditor has tried to audit the use of isolation in the state's juvenile "secure care facilities," and the report finds violations of policy and limited record-keeping, and recommends that the state follow best practices instead of what is happening now.
The audit was conducted after the Legislature passed a resolution requiring it. After conducting the audit, the Legislative Auditor recommends that state officials follow best practices, follow their own policies and keep records to ensure their policies are being followed.
For both types of facilities, the children most often put into isolation were 16-year-old black males. The violations of policy mostly involved the reasons for using isolation; a significant number of incidents were found in which children were isolated for violations much less severe than the policy.
For juvenile prisons, the audit found at least 1,318 youth were confined 6,188 times.
"While the average amount of room confinement time was 20.7 hours, detention centers document room confinement differently and do not always include required information, which makes it difficult to know exactly how much time youth are spending in room confinement. However, some instances of room confinement exceeded 72 hours, which violates standards," the report states. "We also found that some detention centers do not include sleep time in the calculation of room confinement duration when confinement extends overnight, which makes their confinement duration shorter than centers that do."
The audit found that the most frequent reason for the punishment was "youth-on-youth fighting and physical aggression," but "detention centers also used room confinement as a punishment for lesser negative behaviors, such as failure to follow instructions and disruptive behavior, which accounted for 2,302 (37.2%) of confinements."
That's not in line with best practices for youth detention, the audit states, because "...best practices recommend avoiding room confinement as a consequence for negative behavior."
For the "secure care facilities," the rules are a little different, the audit states.
"Unlike detention centers, which are licensed and must follow standards, no laws or regulations govern the use of room confinement in secure care facilities. Although OJJ has developed policies that allow extended behavioral intervention for up to seven days or 168 hours, these policies do not align with recommended practices," the findings state. "According to OJJ policy, youth who engage in riotous behavior, major property damage, aggressive and intentional assaults on other youth or staff, escapes or attempted escapes, and other such behaviors are placed in extended behavioral intervention."
Even so, the data shows that more than 30 percent of the confinements in those facilities were longer than a week. That's a violation of OJJ policy, the audit states.
"We found that in 2019 and 2020 there were 751 instances of room confinement involving approximately 217 youth in secure care facilities. The average length of room confinement was 137 hours. In August 2020, OJJ changed its policy from a maximum of eight hours of room confinement to a maximum of seven days (168 hours). However, we found that 76 (33.2%) of the confinements that occurred after this policy change exceeded seven days," the auditor's letter states.
These facilities which the Office of Juvenile Justice oversees are for children who have been classified as a delinquent by a judge or placed in OJJ custody by a judge.
"Secure care facilities house youth considered a threat to public safety," the audit report states. "OJJ houses females in a privately-owned contracted secure care facility. The agency operated four secure care facilities for males during the scope of this audit."
Although one of the OJJ facilities - Acadiana Center for Youth - is in St. Martinville in a facility leased by OJJ from the St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Office. Because that facility opened in August 2021, the audit didn't include any statistics from that location. The audit only looked at data from 2019 and 2020, the audit states, and that data came from Bridge City Center for Youth, Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe and Columbia, and Acadiana Center for Youth in Bunkie.
The auditors didn't limit their review to the data provided by OJJ. They also did some research into what works best when dealing with children in these situations - and isolation isn't productive.
"Research has shown that isolating youth for long periods of time undermines the rehabilitative goals of youth corrections. In addition, research and stakeholders have linked the use of prolonged isolation to suicide in these facilities," the auditors wrote. "As a result, juvenile detention and correctional facilities around the country have been moving away from the use of room confinement, except as a temporary response to a juvenile’s behavior that poses a serious and immediate risk of physical harm to the youth or corrections staff. Room confinement as a consequence of negative behavior or in retaliation for a youth’s conduct is often called punitive confinement."
The auditor's office posted a brief podcast to summarize their findings, and you can listen to it here. If you'd prefer to read the entire audit report, you can find it here. There's a summary of the findings, prepared by the auditor's office, posted below.
Here's the auditor's summary:
"Performance auditors examined the use of room confinement/isolation in juvenile detention centers and secure care facilities in the state during calendar years 2019 and 2020. They found 6,188 instances of room confinement in detention centers involving at least 1,318 youth. The average length of confinement was 20.7 hours. The most common reason for room confinement was youth-on-youth fighting and physical aggression, and most instances involved 16-year-old black males," the summary states. "Auditors also found 751 instances of room confinement involving approximately 217 youth in secure care facilities. The average length of room confinement was 137 hours. The most common reason for room confinement was threats, cursing or violence toward staff, followed by disruptive behavior. Most instances involved 16-year-old black males."
Here are the full recommendations from the audit, and the reply from the state Department of Children and Family Services, which is in charge of both types of facilities:
Recommendation 1: DCFS should consider developing a standardized form that all detention centers use to document room confinement information. This would help ensure that all detention centers maintain all information required by the Juvenile Detention Standards, such as begin and end times. This form should also include when youth are allowed out of the confinement area in order to participate in meals, school, or other activities.
DCFS response: DCFS will work with licensed juvenile detention providers to ensure they document all required information regarding the use of room confinement and will consider whether a standardized reporting form would be feasible since each provider uses various mechanisms and reporting systems to document adherence to the standards.
Recommendation 2: DCFS should consider revising Juvenile Detention Standards to comply with recommended practices which state that youth should be returned to regular programming as soon they are no longer engaging in behavior that threatens immediate harm.
DCFS response: DCFS will work in conjunction with the Louisiana Juvenile Detention Association, licensed juvenile detention providers, and other interested parties to determine what revisions are needed to the Juvenile Detention Standards with regard to room confinement to identify the best outcomes for youth while protecting the safety of youth served and staff working in the facilities.
Recommendation 3: DCFS should ensure that juvenile detention centers' written policies and procedures comply with Juvenile Detention Standards and that actual room confinement practices comply with these written policies and procedures.
DCFS response: DCFS will conduct a thorough onsite review of all juvenile detention facilities' written policies and procedures with regard to room confinement to ensure that all policies, procedures, and practices meet the Juvenile Detention Standards as intended.
Recommendation 4: DCFS should consider revising Juvenile Detention Standards to require that detention centers collect electronic data on the use of confinement and report this information to DCFS on a regular basis.
DCFS response: DCFS will work in conjunction with the Louisiana Juvenile Detention Association and licensed juvenile detention providers to review current licensing standards and determine the type of data collection that provides for transparency and uniformity across providers.
Recommendation 5: DCFS should consider revising Juvenile Detention Standards to comply with best practices that recommend only using room confinement as a last resort in order to protect youth from self-harm, hurting others, or causing significant property damage.
DCFS response: DCFS will work in conjunction with the Louisiana Juvenile Detention Association, licensed juvenile detention providers, and other interested parties to determine what revisions are needed to the Juvenile Detention Standards with regard to room confinement to identify the best outcomes for youth while protecting the safety of youth served and staff working in the facilities.
Here's the full summary of the audit:
