Power cuts off heat at Fort Worth juvenile detention center, where 105 children are held
Update, noon Feb. 18: An employee at the Juvenile Justice Center said the housing units where kids were moved have been warmed. They have running water in their units and were able to take showers on Thursday.
The employee said building management along with Judge Alex Kim toured the building on Wednesday night. That evening, MedStar went to the center to provide rapid COVID-19 tests for everyone who had been detained since Saturday so they could leave quarantine, the employee said.
Original story:
Power at the Juvenile Justice Center in north Fort Worth was lost on Sunday, causing about 105 minors to be thrown into cold temperatures without adequate supplies, according to an employee.
An employee of the center at 2701 Kimbo Road said the power went out around 2 a.m. Sunday. The newspaper confirmed the employee’s job and is not sharing their name because they fear retaliation and firing for speaking out.
“It’s been so cold on certain units,” the employee said. “The heat turned on in certain parts of the building this morning. We were being told that the generator was broken, but on Monday they said the generator was fine, but it was the heating element in the building that was broken.”
Some of the housing units are still cold and temperatures dropped to about 30 degrees where some of the girls are housed, the employee said.
“There are a dozen or so kids who don’t have blankets because we ran out and they’re using suicide blankets,” the employee said. “It’s really a smock, so it’s not helping them keep warm and it’s making the kids feel confused.”
Joyce Pipkins, whose daughter is being held at the center, said no one called parents to let them know what was happening. She learned about the power outage when her daughter called on Wednesday afternoon.
“I hadn’t heard from her since Sunday,” Pipkins said. “I’m thinking my daughter is safe and she wasn’t.”
Pipkins, who is staying in a hotel because her own power has been out for two days, said she was upset to find out this news through her daughter and not someone in authority.
“I know we had bad weather, but as parents that has a child who is locked up, we should have been told something was going on,” she said. “As a mother I’m worried about my child and every child that’s in there.”
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley hadn’t been told about the power outage when the Star-Telegram reached him on Wednesday morning. He later confirmed the outage and said the backup generators kicked in, but a couple of housing units weren’t getting heated.
Megan Jackson, who had heard about the power outage on Facebook, said she and some friends gathered bundles of blankets to donate to the detention center, but were turned away.
“We were told that they won’t accept emergency blankets,” Jackson said, explaining the reason given was that the kids could flush them down the toilets.
Asked why donations weren’t accepted, Whitley said he was told it’s because they can’t accept items from outside that could cause one of the kids to hurt themselves.
Whitley also confirmed that a pipe burst in one of the units on Wednesday morning, which caused some of the boys and girls to be mixed in units. Whitley said they are all in private cells and are being watched by both a male and female jailer.
The employee said the unit where new detainees are held in COVID-19 quarantine was also affected. When new detainees are brought in, they’re usually immediately tested and released when the test comes back negative.
“We have seen no medical personnel since Saturday, so there haven’t been COVID tests,” the employee said. “The nurse who used to be here on the weekends quit and we have positive cases of COVID here.”
The kids who have been detained since Saturday can’t leave their cells because of quarantine policies.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
