Screenshot via KRQE
A 35-year-old female employee of the Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center (SATC), a New Mexico state treatment center for violent boys, allegedly sexually abused one of the teens in her care. Psych technician Amber Lucero was arrested after family members of 19-year-old patient Nehemiah Griego reported she was having an ongoing relationship with Griego. According to the warrant issued for Lucero's arrest, Griego told investigators that they had been maintaining the relationship since the second half of 2014. Griego had been at SATC since 2013, when, at 15 years old, he murdered his parents and three siblings. He was tried as a juvenile and will be released when he turns 21 years old.According to the arrest warrant, Griego said that the relationship included kissing and touching, but that he and Lucero never had sex. This week, Lucero was charged with "criminal sexual contact of a minor"; she was released but ordered not to return to SATC, where, according to a local news report, she was suspended with pay.According to a 2013 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), about 10 percent of youth in state-operated or -owned facilities reported sexual victimization. Another report from the organization, published in 2016, found that 45 percent of youth sexual assault allegations involved staff. "These adults are tasked with the responsibility to protect these youth," Sagbakken says. She adds that sexual violence often includes elements of power and control. The PREC reports that juveniles are "much more likely" than adults to be sexually abused in confinement.
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According to local news reports, a similar scandal took place earlier this year at SATC, involving a female employee in her "mid 20s" who was accused of raping a 16-year-old boy in treatment. Carmilla Sandoval, an SATC administrator, referred Broadly to the center's public information department, who did not immediately return a request for comment.The Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico (RCCCNM) aims to end sexual violence utilizing tools such as crisis intervention, counseling, and community education in the greater Albuquerque area. "It is a tragedy when vulnerable boys who are in treatment for violent behavior are subject to sexual assault by those there to protect them," May Sagbakken, the executive director of RCCCNM, said in an interview with Broadly. Sagbakken cited a 2009 report by the Prison Rape Elimination Commission (PREC) that outlines this issue in-depth, stating that until recently the public has viewed the sexual abuse of incarcerated people as an "inevitable feature of confinement." This includes the sexual abuse of children by corrections staff.Read more: The Shocking, Painful Trauma of Being a Trans Prisoner in Solitary Confinement
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The fact that incarcerated teenagers committed (sometimes violent) crimes does not strip them of their rights. "Youth in criminal justice settings have a right to 'bodily integrity' under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, as would any child in school," the PREC wrote.Sagbakken says that an increasing number of facilities across New Mexico have implemented the preventative policies that the PREC recommends, such as specialized staff and inmate sexual abuse training."We offer free and anonymous crisis services to incarcerated survivors of rape via mail correspondence," Sagbakken says. "We work with any survivor 13 years of age or older."Read more: Teachers Are Using Instagram to Have Sex with Their Students