Georgia Juvenile Justice Commissioner Orders Review After Sexual Victimization Survey

Georgia’s Juvenile Justice Commissioner announced Friday he’s ordering a review by a state advisory committee after a recent federal survey.  According to survey, Georgia’s juvenile detention centers are among the worst in the U.S. for the percentage of offenders self-reporting they were sexually victimized by staff and others.

In the survey, Georgia was ranked as one of four states where the overall sexual victimization rate at juvenile detention facilities exceeded 15 percent, and the Paulding Regional Youth Detention Center topped the survey with more than 32 percent of respondents saying they’d been sexually victimized. Centers in Americus, Augusta and Eastman were also high on the list. That concerns Rob Rhodes with the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. His organization helped push for recent legislative changes to the state’s juvenile justice system.