The United States Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it will investigate whether there is "a pattern" of physical or sexual abuse by workers in juvenile centers in Texas.
The deputy attorney general for Civil Rights, Kristen Clarke, informed in a press conference that they have decided to open these investigations based on the information they have received about alleged irregularities.
"In recent years, and as recently as last week, at least 11 staff members at those facilities have been arrested for sexually abusing minors in their care."Clarke detailed.
The person in charge of the Department of Justice indicated that they also know of other behaviors on the part of workers of those centers such as the alleged payment with drugs and money to minors so that they attack their companions or share pornographic material with the inmates.
They also suspect an alleged excessive use of force by employees against minors, such as kicking or attempts to strangle them until they are rendered unconscious.
Clarke added that reports have reached them suggesting that in some cases inmates are not receiving adequate care when they suffer from mental problems.
In that sense, he affirmed that in recent years there have been at least two suicides in these centers and that the number of minors with serious self-harm doubled in 2019.
Clarke highlighted that children and adolescents enter these centers to be "treated and rehabilitated".
"This is why the juvenile justice system exists, to keep minors out of the penal system and provide them with rehabilitation and services, rather than punishing them.", he indicated.
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