Nancy Szilvasi, grandmother and legal guardian of Benjamin Hill, keeps Hill's shoes, which were signed by fellow inmates at the Industrial Home for Youth, as a memento of the young man she considered her son. Hill died in the Industrial Home, the state's maximum-security juvenile facility, when he was 19.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Benjamin Hill was 15 years old when he went into the Industrial Home for Youth, West Virginia's only maximum-security correctional facility for juveniles. He had pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault and was sent to the Doddridge County facility after not following the program at another facility.
When he left the Industrial Home for Youth, it was in a body bag.
His grandmother and legal guardian, Nancy Szilvasi, has been trying to figure out what happened since Feb. 23, 2009, the day Benjamin Hill died.
"I want to know how he died," Szilvasi said. "I will tell you this, six months before he died he just looked me in the eyes and said, 'Mom, you know I'm going to die in here.' I said, 'Oh, no you're not. You're too young to die.' But that's what happened."
An autopsy from the state Medical Examiner's Office listed Hill's death as a result of undetermined causes.
West Virginia State Police Cpl. S.D. Swiger investigated Hill's death and found nothing. A video camera pointed at Hill's cell shows no one entering or leaving from the time Hill went in until he was found dead, Swiger said.
"There was no sign of foul play, no sign of a struggle, no marks on the body," Swiger said. "He just died. ... Believe you me, I wish I had more answers."
So does the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Steve Canterbury, the court's administrative director, said many judges and justices are concerned not only about Hill's death, but also about a number of irregularities that have been reported from the Industrial Home for Youth.
Canterbury, who was the regional jail system's director from 1997 to 2005, directed construction of $420 million in new jails and other secure facilities, including new construction at the Industrial Home for Youth.
Denny Dodson, deputy director of the state's Division of Juvenile Services, said he and the staff at the facility are always looking to improve treatment there.
"We have some good people there. Let me say that loud and clear," Dodson said. "But Salem is a small town and it's a 200-bed facility. That's a lot of staff needed for that facility. ... It's hard to find good-quality people."
Hill 'had a discoloration to him,
like he was oxygen deprived'
Benjamin Hill was 15 when he admitted to Szilvasi that he had fondled an 8-year-old boy, and that he'd made the boy fondle him. Szilvasi took Hill to the police, where he turned himself in. He pleaded guilty to a third-degree sexual assault charge. Hill also admitted that he'd committed similar acts with two other boys. Those cases didn't get resolved before Hill died.
Szilvasi, a social worker, said she knew the teenager she thought of as a son needed treatment.
"He was highly intelligent. He could read by the age of 2," she said. "But he was a difficult child to raise. He was stubborn, had a problem with authority."
Hill was first admitted to Sam Perdue Juvenile Center in Princeton but, after about six months, was sent to the Industrial Home for Youth.
"He didn't work the program [at Sam Perdue]," she said.
While Hill was at Sam Perdue, his grandfather (Szilvasi's ex-husband) died in a January 2007 apartment fire in Huntington, with eight other people.
Hill had to identify his grandfather's body, Szilvasi said. The experience was terribly traumatic for him and likely exacerbated his emotional and mental problems, she said.
"He would never talk about it," she said. "The only thing he said was that that was the last picture I'll have of my pop."
She said Hill also admitted around that time that he had been sexually abused, when he was 12. The boy who'd abused him was about 18 and has never been prosecuted, she said.
Once in Salem, Hill was beat up at least twice, Szilvasi said. He met a boy in there, whom he liked, she said.
"He talked about how they wanted to get an apartment together when they got out," she said.
But Hill continued to not do what was asked of him inside, to work his treatment programs. He was threatened with being transferred to adult status and to the Mount Olive Correctional Center, something that terrified the small-framed, gay 18-year-old.
At one point, Hill threatened to commit suicide, his grandmother said.
"He was petrified of being transferred," she said.
Once he found out he was going to stay at the Industrial Home, though, Hill started being more cooperative, she said. He also got saved at a church service there.
"That changed Benjamin," Szilvasi said. "He was working his program, not acting out."
However, on Feb. 23, 2009, a young State Police trooper knocked on Szilvasi's door and told her that her son was dead.
Szilvasi was devastated.
"It just ... I couldn't believe it," she said. "The trooper was very kind. He sat on the floor and held my hand until someone came to be with me."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Benjamin Hill was 15 years old when he went into the Industrial Home for Youth, West Virginia's only maximum-security correctional facility for juveniles. He had pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault and was sent to the Doddridge County facility after not following the program at another facility.
When he left the Industrial Home for Youth, it was in a body bag.
His grandmother and legal guardian, Nancy Szilvasi, has been trying to figure out what happened since Feb. 23, 2009, the day Benjamin Hill died.
"I want to know how he died," Szilvasi said. "I will tell you this, six months before he died he just looked me in the eyes and said, 'Mom, you know I'm going to die in here.' I said, 'Oh, no you're not. You're too young to die.' But that's what happened."
An autopsy from the state Medical Examiner's Office listed Hill's death as a result of undetermined causes.
West Virginia State Police Cpl. S.D. Swiger investigated Hill's death and found nothing. A video camera pointed at Hill's cell shows no one entering or leaving from the time Hill went in until he was found dead, Swiger said.
"There was no sign of foul play, no sign of a struggle, no marks on the body," Swiger said. "He just died. ... Believe you me, I wish I had more answers."
So does the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Steve Canterbury, the court's administrative director, said many judges and justices are concerned not only about Hill's death, but also about a number of irregularities that have been reported from the Industrial Home for Youth.
Canterbury, who was the regional jail system's director from 1997 to 2005, directed construction of $420 million in new jails and other secure facilities, including new construction at the Industrial Home for Youth.
Denny Dodson, deputy director of the state's Division of Juvenile Services, said he and the staff at the facility are always looking to improve treatment there.
"We have some good people there. Let me say that loud and clear," Dodson said. "But Salem is a small town and it's a 200-bed facility. That's a lot of staff needed for that facility. ... It's hard to find good-quality people."
Hill 'had a discoloration to him,
like he was oxygen deprived'
Benjamin Hill was 15 when he admitted to Szilvasi that he had fondled an 8-year-old boy, and that he'd made the boy fondle him. Szilvasi took Hill to the police, where he turned himself in. He pleaded guilty to a third-degree sexual assault charge. Hill also admitted that he'd committed similar acts with two other boys. Those cases didn't get resolved before Hill died.
Szilvasi, a social worker, said she knew the teenager she thought of as a son needed treatment.
"He was highly intelligent. He could read by the age of 2," she said. "But he was a difficult child to raise. He was stubborn, had a problem with authority."
Hill was first admitted to Sam Perdue Juvenile Center in Princeton but, after about six months, was sent to the Industrial Home for Youth.
"He didn't work the program [at Sam Perdue]," she said.
While Hill was at Sam Perdue, his grandfather (Szilvasi's ex-husband) died in a January 2007 apartment fire in Huntington, with eight other people.
Hill had to identify his grandfather's body, Szilvasi said. The experience was terribly traumatic for him and likely exacerbated his emotional and mental problems, she said.
"He would never talk about it," she said. "The only thing he said was that that was the last picture I'll have of my pop."
She said Hill also admitted around that time that he had been sexually abused, when he was 12. The boy who'd abused him was about 18 and has never been prosecuted, she said.
Once in Salem, Hill was beat up at least twice, Szilvasi said. He met a boy in there, whom he liked, she said.
"He talked about how they wanted to get an apartment together when they got out," she said.
But Hill continued to not do what was asked of him inside, to work his treatment programs. He was threatened with being transferred to adult status and to the Mount Olive Correctional Center, something that terrified the small-framed, gay 18-year-old.
At one point, Hill threatened to commit suicide, his grandmother said.
"He was petrified of being transferred," she said.
Once he found out he was going to stay at the Industrial Home, though, Hill started being more cooperative, she said. He also got saved at a church service there.
"That changed Benjamin," Szilvasi said. "He was working his program, not acting out."
However, on Feb. 23, 2009, a young State Police trooper knocked on Szilvasi's door and told her that her son was dead.
Szilvasi was devastated.
"It just ... I couldn't believe it," she said. "The trooper was very kind. He sat on the floor and held my hand until someone came to be with me."
Neither a State Police investigation nor an autopsy by the state Medical Examiner's Office could find a cause for Hill's death.
A copy of the official investigation by the Division of Juvenile Services obtained by the Gazette-Mail states that Sgt. Brian Timmons, who was working at the Industrial Home for Youth as a shift commander when Hill died, said the 19-year-old "had a discoloration to him, like he was oxygen deprived."
The report's conclusion doesn't list a cause for Hill's death but states that the home's staff acted appropriately and in a professional manner.
'We're always evolving,
always trying to get better'
The Industrial Home for Youth has had several incidents other than Hill's death that have attracted attention in recent years.
In 2004, one correctional officer was fired and four other employees were suspended after a stun gun was brought into the Industrial Home and used to shock several 17-year-old residents. A veteran officer reportedly used the stun gun to shock at least one inmate, then allowed that juvenile to shock at least two others.
In another incident from 2004, a guard allowed two juveniles into the room of another, where a fight occurred.
The guard didn't let the two in the room to beat up the other inmate, according to Cindy Largent, deputy director of Juvenile Services at the time. She said it was "mainly an issue of horseplay."
Four officers were charged after an October 2008 incident where a youth was shackled and beaten. One guard, Robert Reed, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to house arrest and some weekends in jail. Another officer was later acquitted.
In 2009, a 20-year-old inmate was charged with sexually assaulting another, although the contact might have been consensual, according to reports at the time.
For a time in 2009, inmates older than 18 and younger inmates intermingled in the facility, but that was changed after a series of assaults, said then-Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Joe Thornton, now the department's leader.
In March 2009, Thornton cited ongoing investigations into three physical attacks and a sexual assault that occurred that month as the reason for separating inmates again.
Dodson, the Juvenile Services deputy director, said the department stringently tests applicants who want to work at the Industrial Home for Youth. The positions don't pay well, and guards or other workers can often leave for a higher-paying job in the state or federal corrections systems once they're trained, he said.
"It makes it difficult to keep good people," he said, "and it's hard to get good people in the first place."
In 2010, the division hired 74 people to fill jobs in its 230-position staff. Dodson estimates that for each person hired, there are 10 applicants rejected.
"That means there are probably 700 people that didn't meet our standards," he said.
In the past year, 20 staff members quit, nine retired, 10 were transferred to other state agencies and five were terminated, he said.
"We're always evolving, always trying to get better," Dodson said. "I think we need to look at the system as a whole, to look at how we can make it work better."
He said housing 18- to 21-year-olds in a facility that also houses kids as young as 10 creates problems.
"If I had my way," he said, "we'd have a whole separate facility all together, so all those 18-year-olds are separated."
Dodson said the Industrial Home for Youth and its staff are monitored closely, and that any planned restraint is videotaped.
"I have cameras on every unit," he said. "I can watch randomly from my desk."
'There's video of a memorial service;
I haven't been able to watch it'
Shortly after Hill died, Szilvasi got a call from Joseph Merendino, superintendent of the Industrial Home.
"He said, 'I'm so sorry this happened, and I need to let you know this is not a homicide or a suicide,'" Szilvasi said, "'and you can no longer speak to any employees unless I am on the phone with you.'"
Merendino did not return phone calls seeking comment for this report. In 2009, he told the Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram that the corrections workers were having a hard time with Hill's death.
"This was a shocking thing to everybody," he told the newspaper.
Benjamin Hill likely would have ended his incarceration last September, and Szilvasi said she and other family members commemorated the event by releasing balloons and smoking a cigarette.
"Ben said he wanted a pack of Marlboros ready when he got out," she said.
Hill's shoes, signed by many of the kids incarcerated with him, are one of the few mementoes Szilvasi has of her son.
"There's a video of a memorial service they had [at the Industrial Home] for Ben. I haven't been able to watch it," she said. "It was traumatic for those kids."
Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.
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