CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The Latest on a disability rights organization’s report on the injury to a teen at New Hampshire’s youth detention center (all times local):
4:15 p.m.
New Hampshire’s child advocate says a report describes “a grave and unsafe situation” if it’s correct that the youth detention center fractured a teen’s shoulder blade and failed to accurately report the incident.
The Disability Rights Center of New Hampshire issued a report saying Sununu Youth Services Center staff used excessive force and caused serious injury to a 14-year-old boy with emotional and behavioral disabilities and delayed medical care.
Moira O’Neill, director of the Office of the Child Advocate, said Tuesday that children with mental illness need mental health care. She said the continued use of a detention center for the placement of children in need of care is unacceptable.
O’Neill also said any staff assigned to care for children with mental illness must be trained to recognize behavior that’s symptomatic of underlying illness.
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12:48 p.m.
A disability rights organization says staffers at New Hampshire’s youth detention center broke the law when they fractured a teenage boy’s shoulder blade and failed to accurately report the incident.
The Disability Rights Center issued a report Tuesday on its investigation into the December 2016 incident at the Sununu Youth Services Center. It says staff used excessive force and caused serious injury to a 14-year-old boy with emotional and behavioral disabilities and delayed medical care. The disabilities rights group says it wasn’t notified until three months later, despite a state law requiring such reporting. And it says further review revealed that staff routinely violated state law in using face-down restraints.
A spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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