Delco Juvenile Detention Center Abuse Allegations: Grand Jury Releases Report

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What happened at the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center?

The grand jury report describes the detention center as a children’s prison equipped with all the harsh architecture and barbed wire that people would normally associate with prisons. From concrete floors to plastic mattresses, the youths at the facility, many of whom had not yet been tried and none of whom were serving time, were ferried in and out of chains.

Many rooms were uninhabitable because they lacked functioning bathrooms or sinks, but detention center administrators put children there during peak populations. Detention center administrators often expected staff and children to clean the living units themselves.

During the testimony, the administrators of the detention center called the children in the facility criminals. Some of the detention officers had a similar view.

One of them testified that many of his colleagues considered their juvenile quarters to be subhuman and had heard other guards call them criminals and shit, according to the report.

The grand jury also found that some staff members were calling LGTBTQ youth homophobic slurs.

The group learned from testimonies that the staff would let the children fight rather than break it.

Additionally, there was an incident where detention officers allegedly assaulted a child and retaliated against him for reporting their abuse. They started calling him a snitch and a rat. They would forget to take him to meals, dump his cell ostensibly for contraband and charge him with fabricated offenses so that he would lose his privileges, according to the report.

The grand jury report also highlighted allegations of sexual abuse at the facility.

In one specific incident described by multiple witnesses, this officer played a sexually explicit R. Kelly song while chasing a female resident around the room saying I’ll get you. When this resident told the officer that the song made her uncomfortable, he replied that her parents probably prompted her to the song, the report reads.

The child was so upset that she cried and reported the incident to a babysitter.

The report goes further by detailing an incident when a detention officer at the facility was previously accused of sexual misconduct towards a resident in 2018. The officer later pleaded guilty.

In addition to these issues, the grand jury also found that staff abused the facility’s youth isolation and isolation tactics.

The report also highlighted an us versus them mentality that detention staff had towards contract counselors who were genuinely interested in working with minors detained at the DCJDC.

Overall, the report found a complete lack of accountability at the facility, citing a hands-off manager, a CCTV system plagued with blind spots, a lack of oversight from county officials and the justice and inadequate staff training. The report also makes it clear that staff were severely underpaid and overworked compared to neighboring counties.

What happens next?

The grand jury concluded its report by recommending more county oversight, more requirements for reporting child abuse, among other things. However, the grand jury did not rule on whether or not to reopen the establishment.

In its statement, the county said it was evaluating its juvenile justice system and examining the feasibility of renovating or building an addition to the closed facility and developing a trauma-informed multi-purpose center that will provide a wide range of holistic services. for young people and their families beyond the intervention of secure detention.

The county council also approved a $650,000 grant to pilot a year-long alternative to detention program with Youth Advocacy Programs.

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