Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) staff at the Youth Services Cener (YSC) and New Beginnings Youth Development Center (New Beginnings) routinely document instances of unusual incidents that take place at the two facilities. During the Jerry M. Consent Decree, DYRS was required to collect, validate, and analyze data regarding the following five categories of critical incidents and assaults:[1]
- injuries to youth as a result of assaults;
- staff-on-youth assaults;
- youth-on-youth assaults;
- critical incidents; and
- self-injurious behavior.
DYRS uses the following definitions for the purposes of categorizing and reporting incidents:
Assault - 1) An attempt or effort, with force or violence, to injure, or 2) a nonconsensual and intentional (voluntary, on purpose, and not by mistake or accident) touching in a part of another person's body that would cause fear, shame, humiliation or mental anguish if done without consent.
Critical Incident - An incident that poses a risk of serious harm to youth and/or staff, including but not limited to the following categories: 1) fires or arsons; 2) riots; 3) serious assaults (for example, assaults resulting in significant injury, involving multiple assailants or the use of weapons); 4) suicides or suicide attempts (not gestures); 5) major contraband (for example, weapons, money (over $5), drugs or liquor); 6) accidents resulting in significant injury or posing serious risk of significant injury; 7) significant operational breakdowns (for example, no staff on a unit results in youth being unsupervised); 8) major physical plant problems or emergency conditions (for example, a power failure, flood, or sabotage by staff or youth); 9) escapes and attempted escapes; 10) significant destruction of property; or 11) any other extraordinary events that pose a serious risk of harm to youth and/or staff (for example, credible evidence of a planned gang activity or conspiracy to "take out" a staff person).
Self-injurious behavior - Any action taken by a youth with the intention of inflicting bodily harm to her/himself.
The OIJJFO analyzes DYRS’s critical incident and assault data monthly and presents it, by incident type, facility, and month, in the charts and tables below. The tables report on the total number of incidents and control for changes in population levels by calculating incident rates. The rates in the tables use the total number of “bed nights” per month as the denominator, which is the sum of the number of youth in the facility each day of the month. In order to make the numbers easier to compare, the rates are multiplied by 1,000 and presented as the number of incidents per 1,000 bed nights.
In October 2022, the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight (OIJJFO) released a report on “Critical Incidents and Assaults at the Youth Services Center and New Beginnings Youth Development Center,” which contained a baseline analysis of all critical incidents and assaults for the period January 1 through May 31, 2022. Recommendation 3 of that report was that DYRS should publish critical incident and assault rates by facility on a monthly basis in order to “provide a higher level of transparency to the public about the conditions of confinement at the YSC and New Beginnings. The practice would provide an ongoing incentive to perform a high level of quality assurance on data recorded in [the agency’s case management system] FAMCare and to consider and develop management plans responsive to any negative trends, should they arise.” DYRS did not agree with this recommendation at the time of the report (see October 2022 Report at page 37) and continues not to publish critical incident and assault data.