20 Georgia Juvenile Justice Department Employees Suspended with Pay
Georgia Juvenile Justice Commissioner Avery Niles suspended the department’s former chief investigator and 19 of the department’s investigators. The suspensions with pay follow a federal survey showing Georgia has some of the highest rates of sexual abuse in U.S. juvenile detention facilities.
The suspensions come after a department advisory committee asked to review the survey discovered more than 20 unfinished internal investigations of sexual abuse allegations from 2012. Under department policy, cases are normally only allowed to remain open for 45 days.
Department spokesman Jim Shuler says Commissioner Niles ordered the suspensions pending an investigation.
“The commissioner will not stand by and allow something like this once discovered. Immediate action was required.”
Shuler says the department has no specifics about the remaining open cases. He says the Commissioner has requested assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Department of Corrections.
“Our goal is that if these are actionable cases that they be concluded and we want them to be taken to a court for prosecution.”
In the federal survey released last week, Georgia was one of four states where the overall sexual victimization rate at juvenile detention facilities exceeded 15 percent.
9(MDAxODM0MDY4MDEyMTY4NDA3MzI3YjkzMw004))
Top Stories
