JACKSON, Miss. -- The Justice Department is suing the state of Mississippi for allegedly violating the civil rights of juveniles.

The cases involve Columbia Training School in Columbia and Oakley Training School in Raymond.

"The state of Mississippi has not, in our opinion, taken action to remedy the situation in Mississippi," said Assistant Attorney General Alexander Acosta.

Two brothers who spent time at Oakley School said Friday that they were shocked at how they were treated.

The brothers, who did not want to be identified, said that while at Oakley, they were beaten, sprayed with Mace and made to sleep on a cold concrete slab with no mattress.

"What they call punishing you (means) they take away your clothes, put you in a dark room and just feed you under the door -- just slide you some slop under the door," one brother said.

The two brothers said they went to Oakley because they got into trouble for skipping school and stealing bikes.

An attorney representing children at Oakley and Columbia schools told 16 WAPT News that residents at Oakley are still suffering.

The Justice Department completed 33 investigations across the United States, but referred to the findings in Mississippi's Columbia and Oakley detention centers as "one of the most troublesome."

The report detailed abuse by staff, including shoving, hitting, hog-tying and "pole shackling" students -- children had their hands tied behind a pole and were left on public display for hours at a time.

There were claims that the staff pepper sprayed juveniles who were already restrained and punished students by forcing them to exercise while carrying tires around their bodies or mattresses on their backs.

There were also shocking allegations that detailed some girls becoming ill after running in the heat, then allegedly being forced to eat their own vomit.

The charges were highlighted in June to the state of Mississippi but the Justice Department said the court would speed up what has been a slow attempt to solve the problem.

"Given the nature and the patterns of the violations identified, we believe a remedy backed by the authority of the federal judiciary is necessary," Acosta said. "We don't like to seek to put a state under consent decree, but believe one is necessary in this case."

Rep. Bennie Thompson said he brought complaints about the training schools to the Justice Department more than a year ago. Outgoing Attorney General Mike Moore said he has been working with the department since June when problems came to light.

"It says once again that Mississippi can't run its own business without the federal government coming in showing them what to do," Thompson said.

The Justice Department said the state made progress but not enough, given its investigation, so its only recourse is to sue Mississippi.

"In some cases, suicidal girls were stripped naked and isolated for extended time periods in windowless, empty dark rooms with only a drain in the cement floor to serve as a toilet," Acosta said.

Thompson said he doesn't think state officials did enough to prove their commitment to make improvements.

"I'm not aware of any disciplinary actions that has taken place other than the transfer of individuals that worked there, one of which I'm told has been promoted," he said. "You have to convince them that you're doing it."

But, the attorney general said that's not true.

After speaking at a luncheon, he talked about the lawsuit. Moore said as soon as he found out about the allegations, he went into action.

"Immediately, I went out and personally interviewed children at Oakely and Columbia," Moore said. "I talked to the kids. I looked at the problems that there were and they were immediately stopped, and all the things the Justice Department -- all of them as of this morning, the guy at Justice -- agreed with me are taken care of."

Moore said he couldn't agree to the Justice Department's request for a consent decree.

"What we need and what we're looking for is an in-court order that will require immediate and systemic change," he said. "The state has agreed to enter a letter agreement, a contract to do whatever we need to do, which would give them much more than they'll ever get by a federal court."

Moore said he believes going through federal court will put the state under a court order for the next 10-15 years -- something he's adamantly against.

"If you enter into it, and get a federal court in the mix, you can't just do what you're supposed to do. You have to keep going into court asking for relief over and over, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money on litigation," Moore said.

Moore said the Justice Department took nine months to tell his office how serious the situation was and claimed the department violated state law by not notifying Mississippi immediately.

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said the state has been working with the federal government. But for as much as the Justice Department claims the state has not moved quickly enough to solve the problems, Musgrove pointed to the work that has been done by Moore.

"He has worked, and we have worked hard to improve the conditions there and, we need to spend our energy and resources to improving conditions and continuing to make life better for our young people," Musgrove said.