PORT ANGELES — The director of Clallam County Juvenile and Family Services is continuing his investigation this week into the detention center and a teenager’s death there last Thursday.
Pete Peterson said he is looking at the center’s rooms, clothing, bedding — “just pretty much reviewing everything we possibly can to try to answer some questions to see how we can make it even more safe and avoid this from ever happening.”
He hopes to conclude the review next week, he said.
The probe comes in the wake of 17-year-old Joshua Petty’s death at the facility last Thursday morning.
Petty apparently hanged himself in his cell using a bed sheet while his cellmate was out of the room.
A staff member found him, and staff and medics attempted to resuscitate the boy before he was taken to Olympic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The boy had shown no signs of depression prior to his death, staff said. He had been at the detention center about a week on charges of burglary and theft.
First time in history
It was the first time in the seven-decade history of Juvenile Services that a youth died in the agency’s custody.
A day later, another 17-year-old boy attempted to hang himself in the same manner but was found before sustaining any injuries.
Peterson said staff will likely be looking at how to make the rooms and equipment safer at the detention center, which housed about two dozen youth last week.
That could include an electronic system that records security checks, similar to what the Clallam County jail has implemented following two suicides there in 2001.
“That’s been discussed in the past, and that’s something that we’re going to bring up again,” Peterson said.
From what he has reviewed so far, staff properly followed the procedures on the morning of Petty’s death, he said.
