|
Tuesday, 05 September 2006 18:19 |
SWANNANOA ÇƒÓ Hours after two staff members were attacked and taken to the emergency room, six officers were asked to resume duty at the Swannanoa Valley Youth Development Center last Wednesday, expanding the total force to seven officers.
Whatës more, the new police force made its first arrest on Thursday morning when 16-year-old Ellis Lynn Hill allegedly assaulted two police officers, who subdued Hill and took him to the Buncombe County detention facility.
Hill
is charged with resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting
government officials. He was being held in lieu of a $45,000 bond.
Another assault of center employees would have happened Thursday if the
officers had not responded, officials said.
The Department
of Health and Human Services police force, which previously had been
let go from the facility in 2001, returned following last Wednesdayës
meeting which was called in response to recent violence at the center.
The request for the police forceës return was made by juvenile justice
officials and lawmakers.
The officers are
prepared to provide 24/7 security, if officials allow the force to
expand to 10 officers, according to Chief John Burchfield.
The prison has lacked comprehensive security coverage because its police force had dwindled to one officer.
The action last
Wednesday, which occurrred a week later than state officals had
promised, was prompted by a series of assaults by inmates on staff and
fellow prisoners that led to a State Bureau of Investigation probe.
At Wednesdayës
meeting, Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore said Burchfield
must have authority to head up investigations because of his evidence
of assaults going unreported.
Moore has been
critical of the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, claiming that the agency prefers to handle violent
incidents internally rather than through law enforcement and the courts.
However, he
expressed encouragement that the centerës officials promptly reported a
student fight on the previous night that led to an attack on two staff
members. The employees were treated and released at Mission Hospitals.
Moore received a 23-page report on the incident in his office last
Wednesday morning.
Also, the
teachers at the center met last Wednesday night with Eddie Davis,
president of the N.C. Association of Educators, after which he agreed
to addresss Buncombe County legislators and commissioners about the
need to make teacher safety a much higher priority at the youth center.
Meanwhile, last
Thursday the new police force met with representatives of the Buncombe
Sheriffës Department, Black Mountain Police Department, county
emergency services and other agencies to develop a plan for handling
emergencies at the prison.
|
