ELDORA, Iowa - Twelve students and five staff members at the Iowa detention center for boys have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Department of Human Services says the first case of the virus at the Eldora Boys State Training School was reported last week in a staff member.
The school, which houses adolescents found delinquent in juvenile court for committing crimes, normally holds 70 boys from all around Iowa.
The facility is under new leadership after a federal judge ordered conditions to be improved in March.
The judge determined the facility had violated students’ 14th Amendment rights by not providing adequate mental health care, using isolation as punishment and putting students in a mechanical restraint for hours at a time.
The judge said the practices wrongly punished and tortured students.