Graham spends his 13th birthday being nearly worked to death by abusive guards who refuse to believe him.

A14 Overhaul of Juvenile Jails Louisiana agreed in federal court to change the way it runs juvenile prisons, pledging, for example, to protect inmates from abusive guards.

Over the years, the Spofford center was assailed over vermin, ineffective programs and abusive guards.

The I.N.S. investigation of the seeds of the 1995 disturbance painted a picture of a bleak place in which poorly trained and abusive guards preyed on immigrants.

In the weeks before the uprising, the immigration service was investigating the detention center following complaints about conditions and abusive guards.

Eventually its brick buildings deteriorated and the center gained a reputation for ineffective programs and abusive guards.

The boy allowed himself to be hauled, but like a convict in the hands of an abusive guard.

And then there is the Federal investigation into charges of abusive guards at the Nassau County jail, a case prompted by an inmate's brutal homicide there.

But he ordered prison officials to address some problems further, including abusive guards, inmate-on-inmate violence and the treatment of mentally ill inmates.

The trials grew out of the violence at the immigrant detention center here, which was run by a private company that investigators said hired poorly trained and abusive guards.