Federal judge set to decide fate of Angola youth facility next week
BATON ROUGE — The head of the security detail at a special youth prison on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola testified in federal court Wednesday that isolating some youngsters from their peers is necessary so people won't get hurt.
Travion Gordon, a lieutenant colonel at the Bridge City Center for Youth in West Feliciana, said cell restrictions are the only deterrent for the worst behavior by Louisiana's youngest violent offenders. He said youths held at Angola have been placed in isolation for hitting people in the stomach with pipes, headbutting, and jumping staff members or fellow youths.
"You give them a toothbrush, they will make a shank out of it," Gordon testified.
The center had an increase in cell restrictions earlier this summer as the number of incidents increased, but of late the isolation hasn't been as necessary.
"It just works," Gordon said.
The ACLU sued Louisiana last month to stop its practice of placing young offenders in a center on the grounds of the infamous state penitentiary at Angola. While the youths are held in an area separate from adults, children's advocates say the West Feliciana Parish prison is no place for young people.
For more than two weeks, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick has held hearings on the advocates' request for a temporary restraining order to shutter the center. She has already told the Office of Juvenile Justice to stop sending youths to Angola while the hearing is ongoing.
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Judge Dick heard the final testimony Wednesday, wrapping up the hearings. She is expected to announce her decision next Friday.
Gordon said youths who disrupt the center are given three chances to change their behavior before they are removed from various programs and returned to their cells. He said other workers remain with the children and work with them on their school work and other material.
If the staff doesn't intervene to stop misbehavior, he said, "a kid is going to end up dead or in a coma."
Under cross-examination, Gordon said that a youth who was held in isolation for 14 days in a row was disruptive "all the time," at times throwing food or human waste.
"It took that long to work with that kid," Gordon said. "Eventually it worked because he was released" back to a less-strict youth center.
The Angola center was set up as a temporary home for the worst youthful offenders while the state sets up a new unit in Monroe. That center is expected to open this fall. The Angola site for youths opened last fall.