Parents get probation for keeping 11-year-old with autism in ‘jail cell’
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LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Two parents who kept an 11-year-old child living with autism in a makeshift jail cell will have to serve a year of probation, a judge ordered Wednesday.

In January, Jeffery Scanlan and Misty Scanlan pleaded guilty to one count of child neglect or endangerment, a gross misdemeanor.

Last spring, police performing a welfare check at a home near Wigwam and Green Valley parkways found the boy in a “large metal enclosure” with metal bars and locked doors, “similar to a jail cell,” documents said.

The boy was wearing only a diaper and the enclosure had feces on the floors and walls, documents said. Jeffery Scanlan told police that the child was diagnosed with “severe autism spectrum disorder.” Three other children were in the home when police arrived.

As part of the plea agreement, the maximum sentence Clark County District Court Judge Jessica Peterson could have issued was a year in jail. Prosecutors did not oppose probation should the court determine the couple was not “high risk.”

Peterson followed the deal, sentencing the couple to probation for a year. Should either violate the terms of their probation, they will be sent to jail.

Jeffery Scanlan told police the enclosure was in the home for six years, documents said.

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