Juvenile Prison System’s Shackling of Youthful Offenders “Routinely Violates the Law,” Says New York Supreme Court Judge in Class Action Brought by Legal Aid Society
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Author: Nicholas Confessore
Source: “Judge Bars Youth Prisons From Routine Shackling,” The New York Times
Date: January 27, 2010
The New York Times reports: “The agency that runs the state’s juvenile prison system routinely violates the law by shackling youthful offenders when taking them to court even when the youth poses no obvious threat, a state judge ruled on Tuesday [Jan. 26th]. The case was brought on behalf of a teenager identified as John F., who was kept in shackles — his hands and feet handcuffed, with a belly chain linked to the handcuffs — for about 15 hours one day while being taken to court. He was 14 and had no record of violent crime, said the lawyers who represented him. The ruling, by Justice Milton A. Tingling Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, would repeal a policy of the state’s youth correctional system that has been in place since at least 1996 . . . . The case, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of about 500 youths held in residential centers run by the state’s Office of Children and Family Services [OCFS], was brought by the Legal Aid Society. Justice Tingling issued his decision as a summary judgment against state officials, who did not contest the facts of the case, meaning that it is unlikely that they would win an appeal. ‘The court’s recognition that O.C.F.S. cannot treat children this way is part and parcel of a culture of abusive practices that is not rehabilitative and does not recognize that these are children who are in the care of the state,’ said Nancy Rosenbloom, the Legal Aid lawyer leading the case . . . . Justice Tingling found that the agency’s policy violated the state’s own law on shackling youths in custody, which states that shackles should be used only as a last resort, for youths who are dangerous and uncontrollable by any other means, and then only for half an hour. And shackles can be used during transport only when the youths pose a physical threat, the judge found.”