An investigation has been ordered by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam into abuse claims by migrant teens who are held in the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in the state and say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement.
On Thursday, Northam asked Virginia’s Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security and the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice to look into allegations against the facility, which is overseen by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and where immigrant children are housed.
“If Virginia public safety officials find evidence of abuse or mistreatment at this facility, my administration will do everything we can to ensure the safety of these children,” he said, according to Newsweek.
The allegations were included in a civil rights lawsuit which included sworn statements by six Latino boys held in the center, as well as an adult who reportedly saw bruises and broken bones caused by guards.
Children as young as 14 said the guards there stripped them of their clothes and strapped them to chairs, placing bags over their heads.
“Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me,” said a 20-year-old Honduran immigrant who has been held in the center for five years. “Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn’t really move. … They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on.”
Another boy who came from Mexico to the U.S. at the age of 15 and was detained at Shenandoah for over a year and a half said they would get awarded points for good behavior and had points taken away for bad behavior.
“If you had all of your points at the end of the week, you could buy things like toothpaste and soap. I regularly got points taken away for things like not wanting to work on the mural in art class, complaining about a headache, or throwing a ball that hit the ceiling in the gym,” he said.
Lawyers for the detention facility have denied in court filings all the allegations of physical abuse.
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