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Nearly every adult working with children in the U.S. — from nannies to teachers to coaches — has undergone state screenings to ensure they have no proven history of abusing or neglecting kids. One exception: thousands of workers at two federal detention facilities holding 3,600 migrant teens in the government’s care, The Associated Press has learned. The staff isn’t being screened for child abuse and neglect at a Miami-based emergency detention center because Florida law bans any outside employer from reviewing information in its child welfare system. Until recently at another facility holding migrant teens in Tornillo, Texas, staff hadn’t even undergone FBI fingerprint checks, let alone child welfare screenings, a government report found. (Mendoza and Burke, 12/7)

Advocates have alleged that the facilities lack adequate education, medical care and mental health services. Earlier this year, a toddler from Guatemala named Mariee Juarez died after developing an infection and respiratory symptoms inside Dilley. Adelina Pruneda, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that family residential centers “operate in an open environment” that includes medical care, play rooms, social workers, educational services and access to lawyers. (Armus, 12/10)

Physicians Scott Allen and Pamela McPherson discuss the abuses they witnessed in government detention centers when they inspected the facilities for the Department of Homeland Security. (Martin, 12/8)