The boys have been at a detention center since the March 24 shooting deaths of four students and a teacher at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro. Ten other people were wounded in that attack. Under Arkansas law, children under 14 cannot be tried as adults. The average length of stay for boys at JUMP is 624 days, nearly two years. A psychiatrist comes to the Alexander center on an as-needed basis, and DYS contracts for a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' psychologist to hold group counseling sessions.
Individual therapy is given to youths held for such offenses as substance abuse or sex crimes.
Youths also attend school on the campus, but classes are held sporadically. For example, all classes for Alexander were canceled three times in a single week. Many of the boys are returned to their communities, not because they have been rehabilitated but because the bed space is needed for other serious offenders or they have turned 18 and must be released because the state has no facility to keep them until they turn 21. On the night of March 7, the door between the Goldstar and Show units was open. Higgins had just left to warm her dinner, but something told her to return to the day room.