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Dozens Allege Abuse at N.H. Youth Detention Center

photo of building from outside
Youth Services Center

A class action lawsuit alleges decades of abuse at New Hampshire's state-run youth detention center.

The lawsuit filed Saturday comes six months after two former counselors were charged with repeatedly raping a teenage boy at the Youth Development Center in Manchester in the late 1990s.

The victim in that case is now the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by attorneys representing 35 others who say they were abused between 1982 and 2014.

"This lawsuit seeks to hold the state accountable for decades of systemic abuse of our most vulnerable population of children to ensure that this can never happen," attorney Rus Rilee said in a statement to NHPR.

Defendants include the state, the detention center and six workers.

The attorney general's office, which has been investigating the center, said it is reviewing the complaint.

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