Louisiana Voice

President Harry Truman’s Oval Office desk had a placard on it that famously proclaimed, The Buck Stops Here.

That was Truman’s way of saying that whatever happened with U.S. domestic or foreign policy, the responsibility for all decisions rested on his desk. He never dodged that responsibility. Whatever happened, he owned it.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had drafted a letter in which he took full responsibility for the outcome of the D-Day invasion – just in case the bold tactic proved to be a disaster for the Allies. As most of us know, the Allied losses were horrendous, but the invasion ultimately ended in victory and Ike never had to send his letter. But the point is, he stood ready to take full responsibility in case things had gone south.

That is ultimately what really defines leadership: the willingness to accept responsibility.

That being the case, Kenneth “Kenny” Loftin should immediately withdraw his name from consideration for deputy secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice.

For that matter, what the hell was Jeff Landry thinking when he submitted his name for nomination to the post?

Senate Speaker Pro Tem Regina Barrow (D-Baton Rouge) seems to agree as does the Legislative Black Caucus.

The allegations of rape, beatings and suicides were so bad that the New York Times ran a lengthy story about Ware. Some call the practice of swooping and writing such stories “parachute journalism,” but no member of the Louisiana media seemed willing to attempt an in-depth story so The Times dropped in. More power to them for it.

The issue does not appear on the surface to be a matter of race so much as one of abuse – and suicides – at Ware Youth Center in Coushatta.

Loftin, who opened and ran Ware from 1993 to 2015 and again in 2021 to 2022, has not been accused of any direct involvement of the alleged abuse, including rapes and beatings, but it happened on his watch and his response was to call 10 formerly incarcerated girls and staff members at the facility who gave detailed accounts of the alleged abuse to the New York Times “liars.”

“So, they made it up?” asked Sen. Gary Carter (D-New Orleans) during a legislative hearing on the accusations.

“Yes, they made it up,” Loftin answered.

Perhaps the suicides of a 16-year-old girl in March 2017 and the suicides of 17-year-old and 13-year-old boys just two days apart in February 2019 were also lies. And the 64 alleged suicide attempts in 2019 and 2020 appear to be a tad excessive. Granted, all these incidents occurred during a time when Loftin was not running Ware but for years Ware’s leaders, including Loftin, failed to report complaints of abuse, hired unqualified employees and disregarded state rules, The Times article said.

But never fear. State Inspector General Stephen Street came riding to the rescue.

In a 38-page report issued just last month (April 25), Street informs us that remedial steps had been taken since the suicides to address oversights such as not having checked on the 13-year-old for more than two hours or the 17-year-old for 45 minutes despite regulations requiring visual checks at 15-minute intervals.

Another neat defensive measure was to move bars to the outside of windows so they could not be used as tie-off points in hanging attempts. Digital readers were also installed that required staff members to show they completed room checks by digitally swiping a handheld device.

Question: didn’t anyone in charge have sufficient foresight to have taken those steps long before there were “incidents”?

Bottom line to Street’s REPORT? Ware is now “safe and secure.”