findings and legal conclusions binding on, or admissible in, any court, and nothing in this Notice should be construed as such. Accordingly, this Notice is not intended to be admissible evidence and does not create any legal rights or obligations. II. Investigation On September 27, 2017, the Department of Justice notified South Carolina of its intent to conduct this investigation. The Department conducted three onsite tours of BRRC and visited DJJ offices around the State. Department attorneys and expert consultants conducted interviews of dozens of staff members including both line staff and DJJ management. Department attorneys and consultants also interviewed youth confined or previously confined at BRRC, and their family members. Further, the Department inspected BRRC to learn about the physical plant. In addition to inspections and interviews, the Department reviewed thousands of documents. Finally, the Department reviewed video, to the extent it was available, related to allegations of abuse. We appreciate DJJ’s cooperation during the course of the investigation. Staff facilitated the visits and made themselves available for interviews. The agency also provided relevant 1 documents and materials before, during and after our visits. Recently, DJJ provided information about initial steps it is taking to respond to concerns that the Department raised on site. We look forward to working with DJJ to remedy the violations of law described below. III. Background DJJ is responsible for the “care and rehabilitation of children who are incarcerated” in the state. Indeed, the DJJ’s stated mission is therapeutic: to “protect the public and reclaim juveniles through prevention, community programs, education, and rehabilitation services in the least restrictive environment.” DJJ’s rehabilitative services division operates five residential programs including the BRRC, a pretrial detention center, and three pre-disposition secure evaluation centers. A. The BRRC Campus The BRRC is located on a 540-acre sprawling campus in Columbia, South Carolina. On the grounds, there are three male dorms, an honor dorm, an isolation unit, an intensive treatment unit, and one female dorm. The three primary male dorms are identical: Each dorm has a central outdoor courtyard with three pods, or living areas, which extend from the courtyard. Each pod is a large room with bolted down chairs and tables in the middle, and 10 bed areas around the perimeter -- cinderblock cubicles that contain a bed and a nightstand. The female dorm is built to resemble a home with a kitchen, a living room with couches, and bedrooms shared by two female youths. There are two housing units for youth who display behavior and safety issues: the crisis management unit (CMU or isolation) and the intensive treatment unit (ITU). The crisis management unit is BRRC’s isolation unit, and it is intended to be used for youth who need to be temporarily removed from the general population if they violated the most serious level of behavioral standards and they are an immediate safety threat to either other young people, staff, or themselves, or are in danger of being harmed by staff, or young people. The CMU consists of three wings of concrete and steel cells. Each cell is 8 feet long by 8 feet wide and has no furniture except a cement bed and a thin mattress. The cells are dark: The only light comes from a solid metal door with a narrow slot at waist level and a small window that is painted over to prevent interaction with staff and youth outside. While confined, youth are completely isolated from the general population and confined to their cells for 23 hours a day. Youth in the CMU do not attend school, or participate in recreation or other programs with youth in the general populat
Same source, country, and finding where possible.