A group of 66 people sent to juvenile facilities in Pennsylvania as children have filed lawsuits alleging that they suffered physical and sexual abuse by guards, nurses, supervisors or other staff.
NationalThe entrance to the state-run Loysville Youth Development Center in Loysville, Pa., is seen on Monday, May 20, 2024. A set of newly filed lawsuits claims children who were sent to juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania, including Loysville, suffered a range of sexual abuse, including violent rapes.
The lawsuits involve the Loysville Youth Development Center, the South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit and the North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville, all under the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services; Merakey USA’s Northwestern Academy outside Shamokin, which closed in 2016; and facilities run by Tucson, Arizona-based VisionQuest National Ltd. and Villanova-based Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health.
Block said the legal team also represents more than 100 people who were similarly abused, but too long ago under time limits to file civil claims. Proposals to open a two-year window for such outdated claimsEighteen of the latest plaintiffs describe rapes and other sexual abuse at Devereux facilities. One man says that when he was 14, while sedated during “major anger outbreaks,” a staff member sexually abused him while he was restrained “so he could not fight back.
One of the plaintiffs says she became pregnant as a teenager as the result of a violent rape by a counselor at North Central about 20 years ago, and that another staffer didn’t believe her when she reported the rape. The lawsuit doesn't describe what happened regarding her pregnancy.
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