Current:Home > ScamsFormer residents of a New Hampshire youth center demand federal investigation into abuse claims -MarketLink
Former residents of a New Hampshire youth center demand federal investigation into abuse claims
View
Date:2025-04-15 03:16:41
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Frustrated former residents of New Hampshire’s only youth detention center are pushing for a federal investigation into allegations of decades of abuse.
The Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, previously called the Youth Development Center, has been under criminal investigation by the state since 2019. Ten former workers and an 11th who worked at a pretrial facility in Concord were arrested in 2021.
Close to 1,000 men and woman have sued the state alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse. But the slow pace of the criminal and civil proceedings has some calling for the federal Department of Justice to step in.
“Get the state out of it, because they’re not looking to give us real justice,” said Charles Glenn, who spent several years at the facility in the mid-1990s. “They’re complicit to sexual physical violence in this institution for over 40 years because for over 40 years, they’ve done nothing.”
Glenn, 42, helped organize a rally planned for Friday afternoon in Concord where half a dozen former residents are scheduled to speak. He won’t be there because he is serving a 40-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder, but his wife will speak on his behalf.
In his lawsuit, Glenn alleges he was raped by three workers at the youth center and beaten by a dozen more, suffering multiple broken bones.
Glenn said in a phone interview that the abuse started within a week of his arrival, when he came out of his room one night after having a nightmare and was dragged back in, put in restraints and beaten.
“I kept screaming and crying, and I was scared to be in there, and they wrapped a towel around my face to muffle the screams,” he said.
The abuse escalated when he was moved to another housing unit, Glenn said.
“We were combative verbally, and they wanted to demasculate us and humiliate us and do something that would break us,” he said.
Neither state nor federal officials responded to requests for comment Thursday, but the U.S. Department of Justice has investigated similar facilities in other states.
The agency reached a settlement in 2022 with the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice after finding state officials were violating the rights of incarcerated youths by failing to protect them from fights, forcing them to spend days or weeks in isolation for minor offenses and failing to provide mental health treatment when they threaten to harm or kill themselves.
In 2021, federal investigators said isolation practices and lack of mental health services at a Connecticut facility were seriously harming children.
The Justice Department also is examining whether children in five Texas youth detention facilities have been protected from physical and sexual abuse by other residents and subjected to excessive use of sedation drugs and isolation.
The New Hampshire youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, father of current Gov. Chris Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility and replacing it with a much smaller operation, likely in a new location.
veryGood! (15)
Related
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- Who is Walt Nauta — and why was the Trump aide also indicted in the documents case?
- Apply for ICN’s Environmental Reporting Training for Southeast Journalists. It’s Free!
- Today’s Climate: September 1, 2010
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- Scottish Scientists Develop Whisky Biofuel
- Who is Walt Nauta — and why was the Trump aide also indicted in the documents case?
- Thanks to the 'tripledemic,' it can be hard to find kids' fever-reducing medicines
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- InsideClimate News to Host 2019 Investigative Journalism Fellow
Ranking
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Experts are concerned Thanksgiving gatherings could accelerate a 'tripledemic'
- A riding student is shot by her Olympian trainer. Will he be found not guilty by reason of insanity?
- Rhode Island Sues Oil Companies Over Climate Change, First State in Wave of Lawsuits
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Mike Batayeh, Breaking Bad actor and comedian, dies at age 52
- Obama Broadens Use of ‘Climate Tests’ in Federal Project Reviews
- In Election Season, One Politician Who Is Not Afraid of the Clean Energy Economy
Recommendation
A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
Scottish Scientists Develop Whisky Biofuel
Bone-appétit: Some NYC dining establishments cater to both dogs and their owners
When COVID closed India, these women opened their hearts — and wallets
Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
A cell biologist shares the wonder of researching life's most fundamental form
The Bombshell Vanderpump Rules Reunion Finally Has a Premiere Date
Rhode Island Sues Oil Companies Over Climate Change, First State in Wave of Lawsuits