Jackson Free Press

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has dismissed a federal lawsuit over conditions at Oakley Youth Development Center.

According to a press release, Mississippi Department of Human Services officials credit the ruling with the agency's efforts to "better the conditions for all youth adjudicated delinquent and assigned to Oakley through Mississippi youth courts."

“The Division of Youth Services has worked to improve conditions and education, while ensuring the safety and security of youth at Oakley,” said MDHS Executive Director Richard Berry. “We appreciate the Department of Justice and the federal court’s affirming the progress and advances made for youth in state custody.”

Gov. Phil Bryant also weighed in, through the release, saying: “I want to thank Richard Berry and the Mississippi Department of Human Services for working hard over the last nine years to bring conditions to their current levels at the Oakley Youth Development Center. The diligence of their staff to meet the many compliance issues is apparent, and they have succeeded in improving the center drastically from where it was from almost a decade ago.”

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted an investigation of Oakley and the now-closed Columbia Training School in response to three federal lawsuits alleging abuses ranging from staff forcing students to eat their own vomit, to hog-tying students and leaving them naked in dark cells for days at a time. The DOJ successfully sued Mississippi to correct the brutal treatment of inmates and the deplorable conditions of the facilities in 2005, and had worked with the DHS to devise and implement a plan of action.

DHS added: "In 2010 the state had met 51 of those requirements, and an amended agreement was entered into by all parties. Earlier this year the federal monitor assigned to the case found that OYDC had maintained substantial compliance with the 23 remaining provisions for a significant period of time. As a result of that report, DOJ and the State of Mississippi filed to dismiss the suit.

"Numerous changes have occurred at Oakley since 2005. Expansion of medical and dental services, better mental health care, and an updated education program accredited by Mississippi Department of Education are just a few of the programs now successfully operating at facility. Although DYS has had numerous challenges to overcome, the division has accomplished its goal of meeting the requirements of the lawsuit."

On Thursday, Republican and Democratic U.S. representatives introduced the "Supporting Youth Opportunity and Preventing Delinquency Act," in the U.S. House of Representatives. House Bill 5963 would update the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, adding new language to encourage states, cities and reservations to utilize evidence-based programs that are "trauma informed" to help address juvenile crime in the country.

The bill lists several evidence-based programs "including delinquency prevention, intervention, mental health, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, family services, and services for children exposed to violence." The bill would also change the definition of an "adult inmate" so it would not include a person who "at the time of the time of the offense, was younger than the maximum age at which a youth can be held in a juvenile facility under applicable State law."

House Bill 5963 would also require much more data collection on juvenile offenders than is currently required now. It would require the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to collect data on state and localities' use of restraint and seclusion, the number of juveniles released from custody and the type of living arrangements to which they were released, the number of juveniles whose offense originated on school grounds and the number of juveniles who are pregnant but in secure detention.

In a press release from the Education and Workforce Committee Democrats, principal author of the bill Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) said that the purpose of the bill was to help children born into circumstances outside of their control a better path forward.

"These bipartisan reforms will deliver state and local leaders the tools they need to help the most vulnerable kids in their communities put the past behind them and work toward a brighter future," Curbelo said in the press release. "I want to thank Ranking Member (Bobby) Scott (D-VA) for all he has done to move this issue forward and for working together to deliver these bipartisan reforms.”