A Lexington County senator wonders what the Department of Juvenile Justice has to hide.

“I’m astounded by what we just heard,” said Sen. Dick Harpootlian who represents the Irmo area.

“I find this almost obstruction of justice type stuff.”

He and other senators are disturbed by:

• Legislative Audit Council findings of the state agency that houses and educates juvenile offenders.

• Auditor Marcia Lindsay’s revelation that DJJ Director Freddie Pough may have interfered with their audit.

She told senators her team’s investigation had been impaired by an email Pough sent his employees about the audit.

That may have had a chilling effect on their cooperation, she said.

The senators want Attorney General Alan Wilson to investigate the audit findings to see if criminal abuse of young offenders charges are needed.

“We were shocked to hear many of the disturbing findings, ranging from potentially covering up instances of sexual assault and abuse to falsifying records and misuse of funds,” the 6 members of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee wrote to Wilson.

“We appreciate the senators’ letter and intend to thoroughly review the audit report,” Robert Kittle of Wilson’s office told the Chronicle. “We will make a determination as to whether a further law enforcement investigation is necessary.”

The 178-page audit sought what progress DJJ had made since a 2017 audit led to the previous director’s departure.

The auditors found DJJ:

• Had achieved only half of their 2017 recommendations.

• Conditions had deteriorated in some respects.

• Violent incidents have spiked as the agency’s dwindling number of correctional officers struggle to adequately supervise juveniles.

• More workers reported they feared for their safety.

• New employees failed to complete mandatory training within a year of being hired.

• A majority of corrections officers did not pursue recertification.

• Officers were not held accountable for repeated misconduct.

• Juveniles suffered from staff shortages and poor training.

• Juveniles received no medical and mental health treatment because staff wasn’t available to take them to hospitals or doctor’s offices.

• Financial issues involved late vendor payments.

• Money spent on raises for top-level managers could have been used to raise the salaries of frontline corrections staff.

“There was money available and they were not using it for critical needs positions,” Lindsay testified.

Pough told senators that DJJ provided LAC with over 700 pages of written responses and documents that identified audit inaccuracies. He said the audit was inaccurate despite his attempts to give auditors documents to correct the record.

Pough wrote in a 10-page rebuttal that auditors failed to consider pertinent information and reached faulty, speculative conclusions.