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GUEST: Mie Lewis, author of “Custody and Control,” an Aryeh Neier Fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU

Last week, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union issued a new report entitled, “Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls.” The report, authored by Mie Lewis, focuses on two remote high-security juvenile facilities in New York; Tyron and Lansing. Sexual abuse and excessive physical force by staff are among the report’s most troubling findings. According to testimonies, staff used face-down restraint procedures arbitrarily as punishment against wards for minor issues such as improperly made beds. Furthermore, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU have documented at least three cases in the past five years of staff having sex with girls in custody. The majority of girls confined in the two facilities are between the ages of 15 and 16 although some are as young as twelve. Nearly three quarters of those confined are either African American or Latino.

Download the entire report here: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/09/22/usdom14249.htm