Watch: D.C. Youth Has Arm Broken By Staff At Treatment Facility

Watch: D.C. Youth Has Arm Broken By Staff At Treatment Facility - City Desk - Washington City Paper



This security footage was shot at KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in 2007. I uncovered it as part of my research on the District's costly use of residential treatment centers. The restraints that you see on this video caused the youth's arm to break. Minnesota officials investigated the incident and cleared the orderlies, arguing that the restrain procedures had been followed properly.

But as one former District administrator pointed out to me: The youth is just sitting in a chair when he is seized by the orderlies.


The incident did have consequences. The administrator and another source say that DYRS had placed a moratorium on using Mesabi, which calls itself a juvenile corrections facility. While the city's juvenile justice agency had stopped sending kids, the city's child-welfare agency sent at least one foster child to Mesabi in 2010.

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