Video released by the Arizona Department of Health Services shows workers at a Phoenix-area Southwest Key facility dragging and pushing children in their custody.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office confirmed Monday that after reviewing three incidents of alleged child abuse and assault on minors inside the facility, it would submit the case to the county attorney's office.
Last week, the nonprofit news website Arizona Mirror reported that MCSO records show the department did not initially fully investigate the allegations, only reviewing video and not conducting interviews.
MCSO said Monday that it had reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and interviewed all the people involved in the alleged abuse on Sept. 14, 17 and 21, including the victims. The MCSO release did not specify when the interviews were conducted.
Video of two of the incidents was released by ADHS Monday. The video, in the player above, is blurred but shows a child being dragged around a room and an unspecified incident in a room that looks like a classroom. Video like this is often blurred to protect the identity of the victims.
The facility houses undocumented migrant children detained at the border. Southwest Key is contracted by the federal government and licensed by Arizona's health department.
Southwest Key paid a fine and forfeited its licenses in October for two Phoenix-area facilities as part of an agreement with Arizona's health department. It had earlier stopped operations at the facility over the accusations.
The health department said in a statement Monday that the settlement came after it notified Southwest Key Sept. 19 that it intended to revoke all 13 of the company's licenses at Arizona facilities.
This is not the first accusation of abuse at a shelter; a former employee at a Mesa location was sentenced earlier this year on 10 sex charges related to abuse of detained children.