Politics & Government

19 Juvenile Justice Investigators Suspended

The suspensions came one week after a federal report found high rates of sexual victimization in Georgia's juvenile facilities.

A week after Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Avery Niles assigned a committee to review a federal report that found high rates of sexual victimization at Paulding County Regional Youth Detention Center and 12 other juvenile facilities, 19 members of the agency's Office of Investigations were suspended.

More than 20 unfinished internal investigations of sex abuse allegations from 2012 have remained open longer than the 45 days allowed by Department of Juvenile Justice policy, according to the committee's findings.

New chief investigator Ricky Rich was in the process of conducting "a comprehensive top-to-bottom reorganization" of the Office of Investigations before the committee's discovery, Niles said Thursday in a statement.

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"This alleged failure of accountability is the last thing we expected to find among an experienced and dedicated staff at DJJ," he said. "It is a disturbing breach of confidence and fundamentally unacceptable. These investigators have a duty to protect our youth and employees and to uphold the most basic standards of professional behavior."

Niles said the agency will request the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Department of Corrections "so we can have independent outside agencies carefully examine and complete these unfinished internal investigations of sex abuse allegations."

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It has been a tough month for the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Data released June 7 from the 2012 National Survey of Youth in Custody identified 13 juvenile facilities with high rates of sexual victimization. Not only was the Paulding County Regional Youth Detention Center at the top of the list, Georgia was singled out as one of four states with a high number of sexual incidents.

The survey found that 32.1 percent of Paulding juveniles reported that they were victimized sexually by either staff or other juveniles at the center.

That exceeded the national rate of 9.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Paulding also had the highest rate of staff-on-youth sexual victimization (31 percent). About 7.1 percent of respondents said the staff sexual misconduct was the result of force or other forms of coercion.

Niles said the Department of Juvenile Justice "had to take these immediate corrective actions to ensure all reports of sexual abuse and harrassment are thoroughly investigated according to DJJ Policy and sate and federal law."

For further contemplation and analysis, read the full report at http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry12.pdf

Related content

  • Georgia's Juvenile Justice Chief Seeks Analysis of Federal Report
  • Report: Paulding Juvenile Facility Has High Rate of Sexual Misconduct


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