The director of the Division for Children, Youth and Families sharply rebutted many of the recent concerns raised about restraint and seclusion practices in the state’s youth detention center, even as new allegations continued to emerge.
Marie Noonan testified before a legislative committee on Monday that children at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester were “going into prone intentionally,” referring to the position on one’s stomach that is known to restrict breathing.
Noonan disputed claims that children were deprived of medical care and access to water. She said it was “emphatically false” to suggest that children had been secluded, largely in their rooms, for over a month.
Her response was the state’s most thorough and forceful defense of conditions inside the facility since details began to emerge in late March. The concerns, first raised by the Office of the Child Advocate, have spurred four separate, ongoing investigations of the practices in the Manchester facility.
Lawyers and officials at two of the entities conducting reviews — the Office of the Child Advocate and the Disability Rights Center — have received reports from children and staff about several instances of minors being placed in the prone position at the facility this year, including as recently as last week.
State law prohibits staff from placing children in that position unless it is required temporarily to transition to an alternative, safer form of restraint.
Lawyers for the Disability Rights Center said they believed children may have been placed in the prone position for up to 20 minutes, attorney Michael Todd said. (Todd stressed that his office’s investigation is ongoing, and no findings have been reached. Initial observations, he said, were based on interviews conducted with more than a dozen children and staff.)
“Staff have stated that most instances of restraint end in prone restraint,” Todd said.
Todd wrote in a follow-up statement that children have reported being unable to breathe or having difficulty breathing while in the prone position.
Noonan’s claim that children would purposefully place themselves in the prone position was met with skepticism by some of the advocates investigating conditions in the facility.
“We’ve watched video of multiple incidents that involved prone restraint, and in the ones that we’ve watched, there was not one of them where a child put themselves in that position,” Child Advocate Casandra Sanchez said in an interview. “There were actually a couple of them where children were seen trying to resist that position and roll onto their side, and they were pushed back down onto their stomachs.”
Noonan said that DCYF recognizes “that prone restraint is not legal but for moving into a more safe position.” Following the committee meeting, Noonan declined to comment further on her claim that children were purposefully placing themselves in that position and abruptly ended a brief interview.
“I understand it might be difficult [to understand] and what I said in there stands,” she said.
She referred additional questions to a department spokesman, who did not elaborate before publication.
In response to a concern raised by the Office of the Child Advocate about a child who broke a bone in their hand in March after reportedly being held down in the prone position for three-and-a-half minutes, Noonan said the child was seen by medical professionals in the facility the day after sustaining the injury.
She said that facility staff sometimes had to remove access to water from children because they were “not using the cups responsibly” or were placing objects in the water containers.
“We are certainly not withholding food and water,” she said.
Noonan suggested that the recent public scrutiny of conditions at the facility has emboldened the children held there.
“Currently, youths too often tell staff they will get in trouble, or they will be fired if staff fulfill their job responsibilities,” Noonan said.
She said that the facility “has more staff injured this week than last week.” Other staff, she said, are calling out sick.
In a letter sent to the Disability Rights Center late last week, Noonan called some of the organization’s allegations “unfathomable” and suggested that their visits to the facility were fomenting disrespect of staff.
“Impressionable youth, who are in need of clear guidance and structure, can become confused and fearful when proper direction is not given and unfounded accusations, such as purposeful agitation, are waged against those in authority,” she wrote.
“Many of these youth have experienced significant trauma and these allegations have caused nothing but uncertainty and the potential for further trauma,” Noonan added.
As of last month, the facility held 15 children between the ages of 13 and 17.
The claims of improper restraint and seclusion at the Sununu Youth Services Center have emerged as the state is defending against more than 2,000 allegations of abuse and neglect experienced in youth detention facilities over many decades.
The legislative committee had been set to prepare a report by the end of this week, but lawmakers indicated Monday they could need a month longer before their report is finalized.
