Youths locked up in Colorado’s juvenile corrections system are isolated for hours in tiny, barren rooms, wrapped in full-body straitjackets, and subdued with “knee strikes” and other pain-compliance techniques that have ended with rug burns, according to a detailed investigation released Thursday.

The “culture of violence” at the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections is not only unsafe for teens and staff, but is further torment to youths who suffered abuse and neglect before they were sent behind bars, says the report from the Colorado Child Safety Coalition that calls for immediate reforms.

Staff “routinely use physical force and pain to control young people,” the report says, counting 3,611 times that youth were restrained by handcuffs, shackles or a straitjacket called “the WRAP” in a 13-month period ending Jan. 31. Staff also use “pain-compliance techniques” by striking or putting pressure on “sensitive parts of the child’s body to purposely cause pain and gain compliance,” researchers found.

Division of Youth Corrections director Anders Jacobson called the report “inflammatory” and said he already is taking steps to cut back on use of force and seclusion. The division has one staff person per 11 youths, well above the federal requirement of one per eight.

A $5 million budget request this year would add 80 employees to the youth corrections system.

The wrap is used only in emergencies, when a youth or employee is in danger, and only as a last resort after staff has tried “verbal deescalation,” he said. “The need for staff is key,” Jacobson said in an interview. “We have been very understaffed compared to others nationally.”

Any staff member found to violate that policy is reported to law enforcement or child protective services, he said.

The investigation relied on internal data on violence and restraint collected by the Division of Youth Corrections and obtained by researchers, medical and corrections reports, including videos, released after incarcerated youth signed waivers, and interviews with 21 youths who were held in 11 facilities. Scrutiny of youth corrections by community watchdogs and some lawmakers has intensified in the last few years as reports of riots and abuse surfaced from Spring Creek Youth Services Center in Colorado Springs, but this investigation is the most comprehensive and damaging.

Youths in the system are awaiting criminal charges or serving sentences. Many have experienced abuse and neglect, been in foster care or struggle with mental illness. “They need treatment, not punishment,” said Rebecca Wallace, an attorney with American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and the report’s lead author. “These kids, and the staff who care for them, are in crisis. They need a culture change in DYC, and they need it now.”

The wrap — used 253 times in 13 months, more than once every other day — requires handcuffing a youth’s hands and binding his legs together. The youth is wrapped up, the entire length of the body, and a strap attached to the chest and legs forces the youth into a seated position. In some cases, staff also cover the youth’s head and face with a cloth called a “spit mask.”

More than half the youths interviewed by researchers said they were placed in the restraint, one of them 17 times. Several teens said they were kept in the wrap for one to three hours and that they felt like they couldn’t breathe, especially when they had to wear the “spit mask.”

Of Colorado’s 12 secure youth corrections facilities, nine use the wrap, despite that many other states do not use it at all. It was banned in Arkansas after the child ombudsman there called it “torture.” Of about 40 youth corrections facilities in the nation that contract to use the restraint, nine are in Colorado, researchers found.

Department records obtained by researchers showed one child was placed in the wrap after staff found him with a shirt wrapped around his neck in a suicide attempt. Another was “sitting quietly while tears streaming down face,” according to a department write-up that stated the youth was kept in the restraint for an additional 40 minutes after the tears.

One youth reported being wrapped despite a bloody nose.

“I was trying to breathe to talk to them and say ‘Stop, stop, stop.’ They wouldn’t listen, so they put the spit mask on me. I was trying to breathe and blood was filling up in my mouth and coming up in my nose. And I was trying to spit it out but I couldn’t. And I was crying.”

Researchers also found evidence that youth corrections staff use pressure points to force teens “to the ground in submission.” Staff put pressure behind a youth’s ear or on the neck, or bend a wrist backward, the report said. Division documents reference “tibia pressure point,” meaning the shinbone, “knee on right calf” and “pressure to the mandibular angle,” regarding the jaw.

Staff use their knees to strike youths in the legs, stomach and side of the body, documenting strikes to the “femoral nerve point” or “common peroneal,” a nerve in the lower leg, the report says.

Division records confirmed youth reports of head injuries, concussions, rug burns, shoulder separation, bruises and bleeding after altercations between staff and youths, researchers said. Teens reported having their heads slammed to the floor or into furniture, feeling dizzy and being placed on concussion watch. One said staff would treat them nicely after realizing “how much damage” they caused, asking “Can I clean your face? Can I get you a new shirt?”

In the 13-month period, staff placed youths in solitary confinement 2,240 times, locking them in a small room containing only a metal toilet, metal bed frame, a sleeping mat and blanket, and a roll of toilet paper. Average length of time in solitary ranged from less than one hour to nearly six hours, though some youths reported staying for days.

One teen told researchers solitary confinement reminded him of living with his father, who put a lock on the outside of his bedroom door so he could trap him inside.

Use of solitary confinement rose in the last year despite a law passed in 2016 intended to prohibit long stretches in isolation for incarcerated youths, the investigation revealed.

Violence inside Colorado’s youth corrections facilities also is escalating. A state audit released in September found that the number of assaults and fights increased by 42 percent from 2013 to 2016.

The report made public Thursday also blasted Division of Youth Corrections for what it called “obstruction,” complaining the department refused requests to review staff “use of force reports.” The division said it was a security risk to reveal its protocols. When researchers produced the necessary releases signed by youths, the department released staff accounts detailing youth actions leading up to use of force, but would not release reports describing the use of force, researchers said.

“This lack of transparency shields DYC and its staff at the expense of public knowledge,” the report says.

The coalition, which included ACLU Colorado, Disability Law Colorado, the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender and the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center, suggested Colorado look toward Missouri’s policies, considered the “gold standard” for rehabilitating incarcerated youth.

In Missouri, sleeping quarters more resemble dorm rooms than cells. Youths can have comforters, wear their own clothes instead of prison scrubs, and decorate with their own belongings. The goal is “internalized change” instead of “behavioral compliance.” Missouri has significantly lower rates of violence and injury to staff and youths compared with other states.

The report calls on Colorado to ban use of the wrap and solitary confinement for youths, as well as greater transparency in incidence reports from the youth corrections department. The coalition also wants the nonprofit Missouri Youth Services Institute to assist in Colorado reform.

“We have lost faith in DYC leadership’s ability to change the culture from within. Outside help is needed,” Wallace said.

Jacobson, director of youth corrections in Colorado, pointed to the system’s high graduation rates, low average seclusion times and use of community treatment centers for incarcerated youths. Jacobson recently visited Missouri to review that state’s approach and in February created a committee to review Colorado’s physical management techniques.

“I think that essentially we have the same goal,” said Jacobson, regarding the report’s authors. “That goal is to provide the No. 1 best youth corrections system in the country.”

The Office of Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman also has been reviewing use of the wrap, a spokeswoman said Thursday. Its report is expected in a couple of months.

Colorado’s juvenile corrections system held more than 8,000 youths age 10 to 21 last year. The division spent $134 million in 2016 overseeing 10 state-operated facilities and two contractor-run centers that are locked and fenced to prevent escapes.