The Prince George’s County youth detention facility where a teacher was killed last year remains plagued by assaults, security lapses, crowding and understaffing, according to a new report. Maryland’s Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, a watchdog for the state’s youth detention centers, says assaults and disturbances at the Cheltenham Youth Facility spiked in July, August and September compared with those months last year.
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Reports from the agency have slammed Cheltenham since February 2010, when instructor Hannah Wheeling was killed. A student who was 13 at the time has been charged in her death. This summer, two detainees briefly escaped, partly as a result of shoddy supervision, according to the monitoring agency.
The new report says there were 97 incidents involving injuries during the three months studied, up from just 53 during the same time last year. Youth-on-youth assaults climbed from 48 to 76, youth-on-staff assaults jumped from one to 12 and group disturbances “increased exponentially” from zero to 26.
“Twenty-six group disturbances in a three-month period is cause for great concern and action must be taken to uncover and address underlying issues driving such incidents,” the report says.
The monitoring unit said additional security cameras are needed. In a response to the report, the Department of Juvenile Services said it is “in the process of installing a comprehensive digital CCTV system at Cheltenham.” That system — which is slated to be in effect by March — will add 129 security cameras to the 49 installed at the facility now.
The facility is persistently overcrowded. Since some cottages were closed after Wheeling’s death, Cheltenham can only accommodate 86 youths, the monitoring unit says. The average population was 109 in July, 103 in August and 113 in September.
Cheltenham says 112 staff members are needed for optimal operations, but only 91 staffers are available for work, the report found.
The department said it is “committed to safe staffing levels” and is working to streamline the hiring process.
The department also said it has assigned two Cheltenham staff members to supervise recreation activities to ensure “youth are constructively occupied outside school hours.”
The monitoring unit called the center’s physical condition “inappropriate” for youth, but the department said it is renovating the facility. All bedrooms now have “suicide-proof beds,” roofs are slated to be replaced and repairs are being made to the windows and floor.
