Posted on 05/14/2005 5:22:04 PM PDT by SmithL
This 17-year-old girl has one word for Richard Bean's new underwear policy: Gross.
Bean has a word of his own for the girl's complaint: Pantygate.
The girl, who is not being identified because of her age, has filed a complaint in Knox County Juvenile Court over a practice at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center in which detainees essentially share underwear.
Bean said he announced the policy a few weeks ago.
Before, parents or relatives of juvenile detainees could bring children underwear to use during their stay at the detention facility. But, Bean said, most parents "wouldn't bring them anything anyway," and the facility wound up supplying underwear for "60 percent of the kids here."
It created a two-layer laundry system. Underwear personally owned by detainees was bagged separately, laundered and then distributed back to its owners. Underwear supplied by the facility was laundered and then distributed randomly to detainees.
"It was getting to be such a hassle we just started (furnishing underwear) in all cases," Bean said. "It's just community underwear."
The 17-year-old girl, who spent two weeks in detention on a probation violation, said she often was given underwear that was stained. Each day, she would get a pair of panties that someone else might have worn the day before, she said.
"It's nasty," she said. "It's degrading. It just makes me uncomfortable to wear somebody else's underwear."
It's different, she argues, when detainees are given detention uniforms previously worn by someone else.
"That's not close contact with (an intimate) part of your body," she said.
The girl's attorney, Assistant Public Defender James Owen, said at least one other of his clients has complained. He filed a complaint on behalf of the girls on Friday.
"I think (juvenile detainees) are entitled to not only be safe but also be placed in a wholesome environment," he said. "These are pretrial detainees. They have not been found guilty of anything."
He noted that both the state Department of Correction and the Knox County Jail supply inmates with sets of underwear that belong to those inmates as long as they are held behind bars.
"Even death row inmates are entitled to their own underwear," he said.
Bean said the complaint was frivolous.
"We've got more to worry about than Pantygate," he said.
The Knox County Health Department regularly inspects the facility's laundering system, Bean said. The underwear is laundered and disinfected, and Bean insists there are no stains on the undergarments handed out.
He noted that none of the boys in the facility has complained and pointed out that the detainees also share washcloths, towels, socks and T-shirts.
"They spray them if there's any stains on them before they wash them," Bean said. "They use bleach and scalding hot water."
Owen's client initially refused to wear the underwear but was ordered to do so.
"I convinced a female guard to get me a pair of boys' boxers," she said. "I figured those at least wouldn't be stained."
The teenager said her complaint may sound petty, but she noted that many of the troubled girls in the juvenile facility have suffered sexual abuse.
"Most of the girls in there have really messed-up pasts and something like this, having to wear someone else's (stained) underwear, it just messes with their heads," she said. "Even if we are criminals, you don't degrade somebody like that. It's not right."
She was freed earlier this week. But her complaint has been set for a hearing next week before acting Juvenile Court Judge Cynthia Chapman, who is filling in for an ill Judge Carey E. Garrett.
Bean said the Knox County Law Department would be representing him. Chapman, he said, told both sides to "file briefs."
Meanwhile, he's feeling a bit put upon.
"I can't win for losing trying to take care of these little children," Bean said.
Maybe they can be shipped to Gitmo?
Tell the 17 year old that the reason she's there is that she "crapped" on society.
Sometimes that's not exactly correct. Kids end up in these detention facilities for reasons not related to any sort of criminal behavior.
Don't do the crime if you can't wear the grime.
"Even if we are criminals, you don't degrade someone like that".
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