Detained kids claim sex abuse

RALEIGH -- There have been at least 20 reports of staff members having improper sexual contact with children in North Carolina's youth development centers since 2004, but state investigators found no evidence that any claims of abuse were true.

Two state employees quit their jobs while allegations of improper sexual activity were being investigated. But officials at the state Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention say those accusations were never proven, and they were therefore not disclosed to federal regulators on annual reports of cases where sexual abuse was "substantiated."

Secretary Linda W. Hayes, who heads the department, declined to provide records about those cases, citing state personnel laws. The News & Observer made the request under a provision in state law that allows the release of such information if the integrity of the agency has been called into question.

Juvenile justice officials have been on the defensive since the results of a federal sexual abuse survey were released this month.

Nearly one third of the girls at Samarkand Youth Development Center in Eagle Springs said they had engaged in sex acts with adult staff members - among the highest rates of self-reported sexual victimization among similar facilities across the country.

State facilities in Kinston and near Asheville also had high rates of juveniles who reported being sexually assaulted by staff members, other youths, or both.

In comments before a legislative committee last week, Hayes questioned the methodology used in the federal survey and said there is no evidence the children who claimed to have had sex with staff are telling the truth.

"We take the issue of youth maltreatment extremely seriously, and do not in any way lay blame to the juveniles that were in our facilities at the time of the study," Hayes said, reading from prepared remarks. "Our students come to us with high rates of sexual victimization and child abuse before coming into our care. They are highly sexualized, and they often show their confusion and inappropriate sexual behaviors as they work through our programs at the facilities."

Youth development centers provide mentoring, educational programs and therapy for juveniles convicted of crimes.

An employee investigated for having inappropriate physical contact with a female student in 2008 worked at Samarkand, the facility where a third of the 25 girls surveyed reported abuse.

William Lassiter, spokesman for the department, said that employee admitted that a girl had touched his groin. The worker was charged with taking indecent liberties with a minor, though that case was later dropped.

In the second case, Lassiter said a boy at Dobbs Youth Development Center in Kinston told an investigator in 2007 that he had a sexual relationship with a female staff member. Though the boy was able to describe body piercings the female worker had in private places, the state investigator was unable to find sufficient evidence to confirm sexual contact had occurred.

At Dobbs, about one-fifth of the children who took the federal survey said they were sexually victimized there.

The state voluntarily reports accusations of staff sexual abuse to the U.S. Department of Justice under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.

According to reports filed between 2004 and 2008, the state department and local social services agencies investigated 20 cases of reported sexual abuse by staff. None was determined to be credible. A report for 2009 is not yet available.

The juvenile justice department had six full-time investigators to review complaints until last year, when four of those positions were eliminated through budget cuts.

Vicki Smith, the director of the advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina, questioned how thoroughly the state investigated complaints of abuse.

"We are concerned the department no longer has the resources to adequately investigate itself," Smith said.

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