♫ slow piano music ♫
Xavier: My name's Xavier Long
I am currently 20 years old.
The first time I had an interaction
with DYC I was 11 years old.
There's point in times where I have felt somewhat safe
at DYC but I think as an overall feeling
it's hard for anybody to feel safe.
♫ ♫ ♫
Dawn: Xavier had been hospitalized multiple times
prior to being committed to DYC.
(breathes)
During those hospitalizations it had been
recommended that he have residential treatment
for the severe self-harm
suicide attempts, suicidal ideation.
♫ ♫ ♫
I was told by the DHS worker and his probation officer
that, there wasn't really any more I could do as a parent
that I had tried and that if I really wanted
to keep him safe and not lose him,
that I needed to let the professionals
step in and commit him to DYC
where they could actually help him.
Xavier: I was actually recommended
through the hospital
because of my numerous hospitalizations
that I receive residential treatment.
However my insurance did not want to pay for that.
So what my probation officer had recommended
was that I get committed to DYC
and then the state can fund that for me.
How my mom felt about me going to DYC
was I feel like she was just really scared to lose her son.
Just…
She was slowly watching me fall apart
and didn't really know how to help me.
I think that, that was really a last resort for her.
That was her, her
what she felt would've been best for me
and, would've just kept me around.
♫ low wind-instrument music ♫
Definitely liked to use profanity.
Kind of just any verbal degradation they could use.
A lot of times,
especially when kids were getting restrained
or anything like that it was definitely
calling them a bitch,
telling them they aren't as big
and bad as they think they are
and that they don't run shit there.
Everybody's on edge, several restraints a day.
Staff just kind of fed up with everything
and ready to just definitely go hands-on
over the smallest things.
♫ ♫ ♫
I was placed in the WRAP
on several different occasions.
They'll start with the legs and work their way up.
It has more straps so it can be tightened.
They generally pull those as tight as they can get you.
It constricts your rib cage a lot
so it makes breathing really hard.
You can't really move your hands or anything like that.
Kids can be in that for hours at a time.
It's almost like a torture device.
I mean you can't move; you can barely breathe.
You can't even turn your head to look around.
Staff can be behind you.
I definitely think it makes things a lot worse in that,
It's completely and utterly traumatic.
Staff preach so much about understanding
and acceptance and taking a non-violent approach
at things, and then when there's any sort of adversity
the first thing they resort to is a violent approach.
The restraints are definitely completely different
in areas where there are no cameras
or that the cameras have blind spots.
It's definitely a lot more excessive.
There's an area at Lookout that's kind of
on the side of the gym near the dining hall
where there's kind of a small area of grass
and concrete where the cameras can't see.
I've been restrained over there and
I had staff, throwing punches,
digging their nails into my skin,
pulling my hair trying to move me, kicking me.
When I was still on assessment at Mount View
staff actually had his knee on the back of my head
and repeatedly slammed my face into the ground
resulting in busting my lip in a couple different places.
My nose was bleeding very profusely.
I just had other staff knee striking me.
Where staff generally knee strike kids
is definitely in the upper thigh area.
Staff have been known when they get really excessive
with it and the kid is moving during a restraint
it'll lead up to, to ribs,
and sometimes to the neck and head.
Dawn: Having a child in DYC
and knowing they're using things
like the WRAP and the restraint methods that they use,
is literally horrifying.
Xavier sustained multiple injuries
during these restraints.
There were times that the DYC staff did tell me
that it was kind of a futile attempt
on my part to attempt to keep advocating for him
and to push in so harshly with them.
I remember one of the directors telling me, you know,
"He's really not your son anymore,
he belongs to the Department of Youth Corrections”.
Xavier: I don't think that slamming kids on their face
is gonna work for everybody or really anybody, I mean…
I don't think that a violent approach
to things is gonna be beneficial.
I think there needs to be some sort of education
on what the different mental health diagnoses
that they deal with look like,
and what is beneficial to treat those.
And how that you can combat that in a positive manner
rather than just combating it with violence.
♫ ♫ ♫