DANVILLE — The North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville is one of several Pennsylvania juvenile facilities named in a new wave of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children.
The Associated Press is reporting… The suits were filed Wednesday and are part of a broader legal effort representing more than 200 individuals who claim they were abused in state-run and private juvenile facilities across Pennsylvania.
The New York-based law firm Levy Konigsberg, which represents over 60 plaintiffs in the latest filings, accuses the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.
The Danville facility, along with others like the Loysville Youth Development Center and South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit, is already at the center of claims that staff members, including guards and counselors, abused children in their care.
“This long standing, widespread pattern of abuse could only have flourished because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania tolerated it,” the lawsuit alleges. The Department of Human Services has yet to comment on the accusations.
These lawsuits add to the growing list of cases brought against juvenile facilities, with allegations spanning more than two decades and suggesting systemic failures in protecting vulnerable children.
