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The suit alleges that Hawaii''s Governor Linda Lingle has not done enough to stem the abuses from occurring on her watch. Abuses and bad conditions have been reported for decades at the facility, however. The lawsuit alleges that the State has routinely violated the young people''s constitutional rights.
The US Justice Department Report detailed occasions of abusive behavior, out of date policies and training for the staff of the facility. The lawsuit likens the culture to that of an adult prison, rather than a youth detention center. Incidents are still being reported, the most recent one as of last week.
The ACLU''s lawsuit is on behalf of all youth who were detained at the facility. The suit seeks to install federal monitors to oversee the facility''s operations. A mental hospital in Kaneohe and several other educational programs recently came under scrutiny as well and now all have federal overseers running them. The youth facility would be the first state run facility to have federal monitoring, if the suit is successful.
In 2003 Gov. Lingle ordered an administrator Mel Ando and corrections specialist Glenn Yoshimoto to step down from their positions at the facility after an ACLU investigation turned up other infractions.