Concerns over education for teens at Angola
Civil and children's rights groups are demanding state officials provide education for over two dozen juveniles, who will soon be sent to Angola.
LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) - Civil and children's rights groups are demanding state officials provide education for over two dozen juveniles, who will soon be sent to Angola.
The decision to transfer juveniles to the nation's biggest maximum security lock-up comes after multiple juvenile escapes at detention centers across the state.
While Governor John Bel Edwards has promised that the juveniles will get the same educational and counseling programs in Angola that they currently get from the Office of Juvenile Justice, children's rights advocates aren't sure. They say there are no plans in place to educate juveniles right now.
The Louisiana Center for Children's Rights filed a letter in early August to the state departments with control over the juveniles education in Angola. Their demand was to provide detailed information about how they will ensure education to the teens.
"Any documentation that's going to show us the plans to provide an education at the Angola facility. From the Special School District and the OJJ, they said that they do not have anything, which is very concerning," said Lauren Winkler, Senior Staff Attorney at Southern Poverty Law Center.
She said that because Angola is an adult prison, there are concerns that they don't have the infrastructure to educate kids. She also said that the lack of planning and transparency is concerning.
"No move of children from a youth detention center to Angola should happen. Kids should not be at Angola, period, but it's very clear that there's no plans in place to ensure that it's a smooth transfer and that they're going to be getting what they're one, entitled to, and two, what's really going to help them in their future," Winkler said.
She also added that state laws require children to have an education, and that doesn't change when they enter a juvenile detention center. In addition, she said teens shouldn't be in Angola in the first place.
"Moving kids to Angola is an incredibly serious move, and we all just need to take a step back and think about what message is that sending to kids?" Winkler said.
Right now, civil rights attorneys are also asking a federal judge to block state officials from moving the teens to Angola. A complaint was filed Friday in a U.S. district court.