WASHINGTON, D.C.–The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement with the State of Hawai’i regarding civil rights violations in the juvenile justice facility, the Hawai’i Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua, Hawai’i, operated by the Hawai’i Department of Human Services. The three year agreement, filed yesterday in the United States District Court for the District of Hawai’i, requires the state to implement reforms to ensure that juveniles in the facility are adequately protected from harm and receive adequate access to medical and mental health services and special education.
“When a state places juveniles under its care, the state must protect those juveniles from harm,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We applaud Governor Linda Lingle and her administration for working with us and acting promptly to implement the reforms embodied in the agreement.”
The Department’s investigation revealed multiple civil rights violations including numerous instances of failures to protect youth from self-harm, excessive staff-on-youth and youth-on-youth violence, excessive disciplinary isolation, a lack of supervision, an inadequate grievance system, and inadequate access to medical, mental health, and special education services. Under the terms of the agreement, the state will address and correct all of the violations identified by the Department.
The Civil Rights Division conducted its investigation pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (CRIPA). These statutes allow the federal government to identify and root out systemic abuses such as those identified in this case, rather than focus on individual civil rights violations.
The Civil Rights Division has successfully resolved similar investigations of other juvenile justice facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Investigations concerning juvenile justice facilities are pending in Indiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma.
The Department of Justice’s enforcement effort reaches beyond juvenile facilities. Since 2001, the Department of Justice has opened 58 similar investigations into the terms and conditions of confinement at nursing homes, mental health facilities, residences for persons with developmental disabilities, jails, and prisons.
More information about the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/index.html.
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06-069