Suit to End Mistreatment of Boys in a Juvenile Detention Center in Iowa

In conjunction with the Foundation’s High Impact Project, Children’s Rights and Disability Rights Iowa filed in November 2017 G.R. v. Foxhoven on behalf of all children confined to Iowa’s Boys State Training School who have significant mental illnesses. Jerry Hartman, President of the Barbara McDowell Foundation, and the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP are co-counsel. The lawsuit asserts that these boys, aged 12 to 19, do not receive the mental health treatment needed to fulfill the facility’s mission of providing “a program which focuses on appropriate developmental skills, treatment, placements and rehabilitation.” Instead of providing this necessary mental health treatment, the facility to control youths incarcerated there relies upon potentially harmful psychotropic medications administered without appropriate oversight or consent, solitary confinement, and full-body mechanical restraints. Plaintiffs claim violations of their right to substantive due process, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; their right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, as guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Children’s Rights, the law firm of Ropes & Gray, and Disability Rights Iowa succeeded after trial in a case, C.P.X. v. Garcia (formerly known as C.P.X. v. Foxhoven and G.R. v. Foxhoven), that was filed in November 2017 on behalf of boys confined to Iowa’s Boys State Training School who have significant mental illnesses. The trial court in a 116 page decision found that the School violated the boys’ constitutional rights in the manner in which it punished and tortured students. It ordered that the school submit a plan to remedy these constitutional deficiencies in its mental health treatment programs, provide effective psychotherapy and treatment plans, cease the use of solitary confinement/isolation except where the student’s behavior poses a risk of physical harm to any person, not use physical restraints, the so-called “wrap,” and arrange for staff training. The Court further ordered the appointment of a monitor to oversee the school’s performance to ensure that the school meets its rehabilitative and treatment goals. A copy of the trial court’s decision on fees appears here.

The trial court has now awarded fees on January 7, 2021, in the amount of $4,540,762.90 and expenses in the amount of $390,363.05. The State of Iowa has appealed the fee award.