The Sunday Story: Uncovering Abuse in a Juvenile Detention Center

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🗓️ 18 August 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

In the U.S., many kids in trouble with the law are sentenced to juvenile detention facilities. In New Hampshire, the largest such facility is a place commonly known as the Youth Detention Center, or YDC (recently renamed the Sununu Youth Services Center). YDC was founded with good intentions: keep kids out of adult jails and prisons and care for them. But now, nearly 1,300 former residents of YDC have come forward, filing lawsuits over alleged abuse at the facility. The allegations include hundreds of cases of assault and rape that span over six decades. It's become one of the biggest youth detention scandals in American history.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Jason Moon and his colleagues on the Document team spent the last year investigating the Youth Development Center. They combed through the cases, worked around legal roadblocks, and spoke with residents and staff who'd never before told their stories.

This week on The Sunday Story, host Ayesha Roscoe and Moon discuss what may have happened inside YDC and how the allegations stayed under wraps for so long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aie Shorasko and this is a Sunday story.
0:03.0	Heads up today's episode contains discussion of suicide, sexual, and physical abuse.
0:10.0	Today we have a story that's hard to hear. It's about crimes perpetrated on children, but it's also a reminder of the power of investigative journalism to bring voice to those who felt silenced.
0:25.0	This past May, a jury in New Hampshire awarded 42 year old David Meyan,
0:30.0	a record-breaking settlement of $38 million.
0:33.6	It was the largest personal injury verdict in state history.
0:37.6	Me and had sued over abuse, he said he'd suffered as a child
0:42.1	while confined to New Hampshire's main juvenile detention facility.
0:46.2	It's known as YDC, the Youth Development Center.
0:50.0	Meyan was the first alleged victim to come forward, but since 2020 nearly 1,300 other people have also filed suit over alleged abuse at YDC.
1:01.0	Some claim they were brutally beaten, others alleged they were repeatedly raped.
1:07.0	New Hampshire Public Radio, Jason Moon and his colleagues on the document team spent the last year investigating the Youth Development Center.
1:19.0	They combed through hundreds of cases, worked around legal roadblocks, and spoke with former residents and staff who've never before told their stories.
1:28.0	After the break, the Youth Development Center. Stay with us. Jason, welcome to the Sunday story. Thank you so much for being with us.
1:47.0	Thank you so much for having me.
1:49.0	Your new podcast, the Youth Development Center, it's really an incredible example of
1:56.7	investigative reporting. I mean these stories are just tragic heartbreaking and they show really just a massive failure
2:09.0	by those responsible for caring for these kids.
2:14.0	Let's start at the beginning.
2:16.0	How and why did you decide to undertake this investigation?
2:20.0	Yeah, so this is a story that's been kind of slowly unfolding in New Hampshire over the last several years.
2:26.0	It first came on to my radar in 2020 when the first lawsuit was filed over alleged abuse at the Youth Development Center or YDC.
	...

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