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December 2007

Group pushes to open report on youth ranch amid abuse allegations

By JOHN S. ADAMS

Great Falls Tribune

December 12, 2007

HELENA — The former head of a state-licensed military-style boot camp in Montana, which closed amid allegations of abuse, is coming under fire in Maryland, where he was recently promoted to head that state's juvenile corrections programs.

Chris Perkins, 38, left Montana shortly after the Swan Valley Youth Academy, a privately run residential treatment center for teen boys, closed. He has said he didn't tell Maryland authorities about his past because he was cleared by state officials in Montana.

Attorneys with the Montana Advocacy Program don't agree that he was cleared of the allegations and they are hoping a Lewis and Clark County judge will soon unseal a report detailing a confidential investigation into allegations of child abuse and neglect at Swan Valley. Recent news reports indicate that the sealed investigation substantiates the allegations of abuse.

Andrée Larose, a staff attorney for MAP, said the nonprofit advocacy organization has a copy of the investigative report but is prohibited by law from disclosing it or discussing its contents.

"We think it's in the public's interest to know how taxpayer dollars are spent and how children are being treated in facilities in this state," Larose said. "We think the contents of the report will provide important information about that."

Officials some 2,000 miles away are taking a closer look at the man at the center of that investigation after a Baltimore newspaper reported on his troubled past late last month.

Perkins was director of the Swan Valley Youth Academy near Condon until the program closed in early 2006.

Perkins, known by juvenile offenders at the military-style facility as "The Colonel," was hired this summer to help reopen a troubled state-run youth correctional facility in Frederick County, Md. He was recently promoted to director of detention for all of the state's juvenile facilities. However, Perkins never told Maryland officials about Swan Valley's closure, the BaltimoreCity Paperreported.

Perkins was out of the office Tuesday and did not immediately return a call for comment; however, he previously told reporters in Baltimore that he didn't disclose his affiliation with Swan Valley to Maryland officials because he was "exonerated."

Larose, the MAP attorney, contends that wasn't the case. She said she believes Montana state regulatory and law enforcement officials failed to follow through on the case.

That's one of the primary reasons MAP hopes to bring details of the abuse investigation to light.

"To me, exonerated means there was a hearing on the merits and the allegations were found to be baseless; that's not what happened here," Larose said after reading recent news reports in which Montana officials divulged details of the case. "What happened here, as I understand it, is that the state failed to appear for a hearing. So the state obviously dropped the ball. That doesn't mean that the allegations are groundless."

Larose first notified authorities of the alleged abuse in an Oct. 27, 2005, letter to then-Lake County Attorney Robert Long. Larose detailed 13 alleged instances of criminal activity and child abuse allegations in a four-page faxed letter and urged Long to take "appropriate and immediate action to protect the children at Swan Valley Youth Academy."

The alleged abuse ranged from locking a child in seclusion while staff left the building for a meal, to slamming a youth against a brick wall. Swan Valley staff also allegedly altered log books that might have documented abuse, neglect and other violations of state law.

Long's office ultimately declined to investigate MAP's allegations for undisclosed reasons. Larose contacted newly elected Lake County Attorney Mitch Young this year with the same information she provided to Long, but Young never responded to her phone calls or letters, she said.

Young did not respond to a request for an interview.

The Quality Assurance and Child and Family Services divisions of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services opened simultaneous investigations into licensing violations and abuse allegations 10 days after Larose first brought the allegations to authorities.

The QAD licensing investigation, which was made public in January 2006, revealed many of the same findings MAP uncovered in its initial investigation. In an 18-page report, QAD outlined 19 rule violations ranging from staffing problems, to failures to report child abuse to the state, to staff using inappropriate seclusion and restraint techniques.

In one instance, Perkins allegedly ordered staff to leave a youth in mechanical restraints overnight, and, in another instance, a boy was kept in seclusion for five days, according to the QAD report.

The CFS investigation into child abuse allegations was not made public.

Perkins told reporters earlier this month that state officials dropped the case against Swan Valley, effectively clearing of him of any wrongdoing.

"All the allegations against me were found to be not true," Perkins told the City Paper on Dec. 3. "There was no evidence or proof to support allegations that were grossly negligent, malicious and manufactured. The state couldn't prove their case in any way, shape or form. If even one of the allegations were true, then the state would have substantiated the allegations. Instead, they dismissed them."

That's not how Joseph Sternhagen, the DPHHS hearings officer who formally dismissed the charges against Perkins in December 2006, characterized the outcome of the case.

Sternhagen told the City Paper that the charges were dismissed on procedural grounds. Sternhagen was out of the office with an illness on Tuesday and could not be reached, but he told the City Paper that state investigators had "substantiated" allegations of child abuse in a 22-page report involving 14 children, and that Perkins was never tried on the merits of the case because DPHHS "dropped the ball."

"It's a 22-page document compiled by a team of investigators," Sternhagen told the newspaper,apparently referring to the contents of the CFS investigative report. "I'm sure they could have proved something had they tried. But we'll never know for sure."

Larose eventually asked the Montana state attorney general's office to investigate the case but was told that the office doesn't have the authority to initiate criminal investigations at the request of private citizens or institutions.

"We can only do so when requested by federal, state or local law enforcement authorities," wrote John Connor, chief criminal counsel for the attorney general's office. Even then, Connor wrote, criminal investigations are conducted by the Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation.

Connor said Tuesday that he couldn't comment on the case other than to reiterate what he stated in his June 2006 letter to Larose. He did say that DCI was asked to do a criminal investigation. He referred further questions to John Strandell, enforcement program manager for DCI, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Larose says the Lake County attorney's refusal to prosecute the Swan Valley case, combined with DPHHS's absence at a formal appeal hearing that resulted in the case being dropped, constitute colossal failures by state authorities to protect the state's most vulnerable citizens.

"I am appalled that these criminal allegations went unprosecuted," Larose said Tuesday. "I think any minimum investigation of any quality would have yielded corroborating evidence."

Larose said the state has agreed to release the CFS report to the public if a District Court judge, after reviewing the document, is satisfied that the redacted report adequately respects the privacy rights of those involved.

MAP has asked the court to also rule on the constitutionality of the statute that prohibits the organization from releasing similar documents and information in the future.

"I think it's important for policymakers in the state — agency officials and legislators — to know what truly happens to children in these facilities," Larose said, arguing that the public's right to know outweighs the privacy rights of the individuals in the report.

Investigators with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services reportedly are looking into Perkins's past based on the information that's come to light since the City Paper report was published. However, a spokesperson for the department told The Washington Post that the agency's findings have thus far exonerated Perkins of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Larose said she still holds out hope that justice will be served in Montana.

"We would like to see individuals who use their power to physically assault children to be held accountable in the criminal justice system," Larose said. "We want to see the state held accountable for the follow-through that's necessary to ensure that facilities are safe for people. If this is the kind of system and quality control that we have, then we should be concerned about every facility in Montana."

Larose said she expects the court to rule on the case sometime early next year.

Reach Tribune Capitol Bureau Chief John S. Adams at 442-9493, or jadams@greatfallstribune.com

Bad Medicine
A Nashville youth facility is a nightmare for kids, staffers say, but the state’s licensing body sees no cause for concern

by Elizabeth Ulrich

Nashville Scene

December 13, 2007

In a smattering of red brick buildings at the bottom of a hill on Eighth Avenue South, a few blocks away from the bustle of Wedgewood Avenue, sits Hermitage Hall—a Nashville treatment program for male sex offenders ages 9 to 17. With nearly 100 sexually abusive boys housed within the seemingly quiet buildings, Hermitage Hall is one of the largest service providers of its kind in the country.

The facility’s brochure outlines this simple mission: “At Hermitage Hall, finding hope for children is what we do every day.” But current and former staffers refer to the facility as a “child jail” where staffers often rough up the kids or drug them into submission—even isolate them in a single room for weeks at a time—all in the name of treatment.

At best, current Hermitage Hall employee Jane Davis—not her real name—describes conditions there as “pretty nasty.” At worst, she calls them a “nightmare.” Davis ducks her head as she describes the facility, which she says does little to treat and reform boys, some of whom are low-functioning and mentally disabled—and many of whom have been abused themselves. Davis decided to share her story after the Scene detailed the deaths of two teens and the abuse of countless others at the Chad Youth Enhancement Center, a residential treatment facility for troubled youth just outside of Clarksville (“Handle With Care,” Nov. 8).

Both facilities are licensed by the state’s Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (DMHDD) and owned by Universal Health Services Inc., a King of Prussia, Pa., for-profit corporation that owns more than 100 behavioral health facilities across the country. And like Chad, Hermitage Hall uses Handle With Care, a controversial method of physical restraint that teaches staffers to hold residents, theoretically to keep out-of-control children from hurting themselves or others.

In September, the facility’s counselors were having trouble getting a boy in the Eagles group, the facility’s youngest unit, to take a seat. According to staff reports filed with the state, the boy finally sat after numerous directives. But it didn’t stop counselor Byron Keith Brown from grabbing the boy by the back of his shirt and tightening his grip until the boy said he was choking. That complaint prompted Brown to slam the boy against a wall—a confrontation that didn’t end until staff called a “code blue” to break up the fight. A DMHDD investigation found that the unnecessary force constituted abuse. Hermitage officials fired Brown.

But Hermitage employees say it’s not unusual for counselors to get rough with residents. At the hands of “uneducated, unprofessional” counselors, Davis says restraints have almost become a sport to Hermitage counselors, who congregate at night and say things like, “Yeah, I got this kid. I got him good.”

Checo Perryman, a former counselor at the facility who now runs his own business that teaches an alternative method to Handle With Care, says it was so common for Hermitage boys to smack their chins on the floor during restraints that the facility’s staff named the bloody scabs on the boys’ busted chins. They called it the “Hermitage Hall tattoo.”

“What happened behind those walls was very scary and very sad,” he says. But not all restraints end in injury. For some residents, restraint leads to a drug-induced haze that eventually lulls them to sleep—or, as some in the mental health world refer to it, chemical restraint, quite simply because the drugs can be used to restrict residents deemed out of control.

Among incident reports in the DMHDD files, there is tale after tale of restraints that end in some sort of injection. Some of the medications are listed by name—Abilify or Zyprexa, drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia and severe mood disorders. In most of the records, staffers refer to injections with a simple, generic term: PRN, short for a Latin phrase meaning to give drugs as needed.

Davis says that, for Hermitage Hall residents, those unidentified PRN shots usually mean a syringe full of Thorazine—one of the most powerful antipsychotic drugs, which critics liken to a chemical straitjacket.

But DMHDD licensing officials see it differently: They simply say it’s completely legal. Such injections can send children into a sleepy haze that can span hours or days, but Tracey Robinson-Coffee, DMHDD director of licensure, says there is no rule that requires facilities like Hermitage to report the number of times it administers such injections. Robinson-Coffee says her department is only concerned with whether the shots are ordered by a doctor and administered by a nurse, not “the way the medication is actually administered.”

Even though Hermitage Hall doesn’t always include the name of the drugs administered under the PRN umbrella, Robinson-Coffee says the injections aren’t cause for concern. She says her department could check any of the estimated 100 patient records at Hermitage where “all that stuff is documented.”

Do inspectors regularly check those files? “Um, we could,” Robinson-Coffee says. “And we have in the past, yes.”

Officials at Hermitage Hall and UHS, the facility’s parent company, declined requests for an interview. But in a statement, UHS divisional vice president Buddy Turner says that every medicine provided to residents is prescribed by a “qualified physician, many of whom serve on the staffs of Nashville’s premier medical facilities.”

Turner adds that he and his colleagues stand “100 percent behind the treatment protocols at Hermitage Hall and are very proud of the staff that provides an environment of care to help kids get better.”

Janice LeBel, who has worked 20 years in the oversight of residential programs for children with the most severe mental and behavioral disorders, says Hermitage’s use of medication is troubling. She says the intense physical contact found in restraints—especially when exposing a resident’s buttocks to administer an injection—can be traumatic for children with histories of sexual abuse. “It’s unwanted touch,” she says. “Do that out on the sidewalk, and it’s considered assault.”

Hermitage records show just how traumatic this can be. According to an October incident report, a boy became upset when staff wouldn’t allow him to sleep in the facility’s day room. He agreed to move to the “quiet room” to calm down, but refused to take off his belt and shoes upon entering. Staffers then placed him in a hold to forcibly remove the items.

The boy began yelling, “I feel so violated. You are raping me!” The employees held the boy in a horizontal position on the floor, where he told staff, “I don’t like people standing between my legs.” The employees, unmoving, held the boy in the restraint for more than 20 minutes.

Davis says she sees as many as 100 incidents of restraint and injury in one month—a number she attributes to the type of employees the facility hires. “They hire the cheapest staff they can possibly get,” she says.

In the world of mental health, “cheap staff” translates to employees who are often untrained and uneducated. Robinson-Coffee concedes that with some employees “being paid $20,000 [a year], I challenge you to find a college graduate that’s going to take that job.”

But staffers such as Davis can hardly stomach the trickle-down effect that inadequate staffing has on kids. “We don’t have the capacity or the training to deal with kids [with mental problems], and it shows,” she says.

She talks about the case of one particular resident: an autistic boy who she says is struggling because of frequent turnover and lack of staff understanding. “A kid with autism, they need the same thing every day,” she says. “We have different staff dealing with him every day. When they come, the kid freaks out and has a total meltdown. Every single day, he’s in a restraint or facing the wall...and he’s been there for over two years now. The program’s just not doing him any good.”

But she speculates that treatment isn’t exactly the facility’s top priority. On average, Hermitage Hall makes $300 to $600 a day for housing a resident, she says. UHS officials declined to verify or refute those numbers. “That’s a multimillion-dollar industry,” Davis says. “If there’s not enough kids in the building, if they’re not making enough money, the CEO gets on our admissions person to pull some more kids in. He doesn’t care where they come from—just get the beds filled.” While those kids come from all over the country, few come from the state’s Department of Children Services (DCS). DCS spokesman Rob Johnson says the facility stopped serving most DCS children some time in 2006. Hermitage now accepts only a few DCS kids under a “unique care” contract, which comes at a higher rate. DCS has only one child there now.

Davis says there are still a handful of Tennessee kids in the facility, though, and most are placed through the juvenile justice system. But business is good at Hermitage Hall—so good, in fact, that Davis and a former staffer, who also wishes to remain anonymous, say it’s not uncommon for boys to sleep on mattresses in the building’s hallways, an arm’s length away from other boys who are known to have molested other children, when the facility is overbooked. Other residents sleep in a cold basement that reeks of urine, both Perryman and Davis say.

Staffers are also concerned about how the boys are divided and housed. The most severe cases, some who have had more than 20 victims in their short lives, are grouped together, Davis says. But others find their way into the unit as well.

Davis says it’s not uncommon for Hermitage officials to make boys who “are just too hard to handle with their [mental retardation] issues” sleep with the most serious sex offenders. “It’s just a dangerous situation,” Davis says. “It kind of shows that they don’t have the child’s best interest at heart.”

At times, when a resident breaks the facility’s rules, he is isolated in a small “redirect room,” where kids are forced to live for days or weeks—sometimes months—on end. Residents can leave the room only for bathroom breaks and calisthenics, Davis says. No books, no playtime—only a bed.

If necessary, staffers double-book the room. Two boys have been living in the redirect room together for nearly a month and, at press time, Davis says the boys were still there. “Two beds can’t even fit in there, and you’ve got two sex offender kids that are acting out...stuck in there all day long, looking at each other,” she says. “To me, I think that’s child abuse.”

It seems that staffers would report such incidents if they did, indeed, suspect abuse. But when asked if she had ever heard of residents sleeping in Hermitage’s hallways or staying in the redirect room for months at a time, Robinson-Coffee says that “we probably would’ve known about that.”

Her office is required to visit the facility annually for inspection. Robinson-Coffee could not provide the Scene with an exact estimate of how many times her staffers have visited the campus but says that it could be “20, 30 or 40 times a year,” depending on how many serious incident reports her office receives. Those reports, however, are filed by Hermitage Hall itself and submitted to her office. And, while not all visits are announced, Robinson-Coffee says, “once we get the complaint, they’re going to know we’re coming out.” Hermitage Hall, after all, has to submit the reports.

While DCS has its own hotline for employees to report abuse anonymously, few Hermitage Hall staffers know that it exists. Davis says that employees are told to submit claims of abuse to Hermitage’s human resources department—and many claims die there. When Davis spoke out about residents sleeping on the floor, she says Hermitage officials did nothing. “They would investigate it internally and...it pretty much disappears,” she says.

In October 2005, at a time when both DCS and DMHDD licensed Hermitage, a DCS investigator interviewed the facility’s staff and reported that, when asked what they would do if they felt a resident was mistreated, “all staff reported that they would tell a senior staff person or administrator. No one seemed to know the child abuse reporting hotline number or knew that they would be obligated to call [Child Protective Services].”

Robinson-Coffee says she wasn’t aware that there seemed to be a misunderstanding about how to report abuse, saying she finds it odd because “no one has complained to our office about this.” In fact, aside from knowing that Hermitage administered injections during restraints, Robinson-Coffee says these claims are news to her. “So there’s no way to address it,” she says. “You know, it’s great that they’re telling the media about these things, but what are you guys going to do other than raise awareness?”

For DMHDD to investigate these incidents, someone would have to file a formal complaint—preferably an employee or someone inside the facility, Robinson-Coffee says. “Unless you have something you want to share with us,” Robinson-Coffee tells the Scene.

“We’re the licensing body and we don’t know about [these alleged incidents],” she says. “But if we don’t know, how are we going to do anything about it?”

Group slams authorities over Swan Valley
No criminal charges filed in case; Montana Advocacy Program attorney dismayed

Associated Press

December 14, 2007

HELENA - An advocacy group chastised Montana authorities Thursday for failing to prosecute abuse allegations at a private residential treatment center for juveniles.

The Swan Valley Youth Academy, north of Condon, closed more than a year ago, but a state report detailing some of the allegations was recently released by a judge following a request by the Montana Advocacy Program.

"This report reveals truly horrendous and brutal treatment of children," said Andree Larose, attorney for the Montana Advocacy Program. "They found there was basically a reign of terror that was promulgated by two senior officials."

Media attention surrounding the report prompted Chris Perkins, former head of the Swan Valley facility, to resign Thursday from his new position as director of Maryland's juvenile detention facilities.

In January 2006, the state Department of Public Health and Human Services completed a detailed investigation. At the time, it released a report on licensing issues, which contained some of the allegations. It did not release the investigative report that was made public Wednesday.

The department did not appear at a December 2006 hearing, which resulted in the unnamed staffers being dismissed from noncriminal administrative civil hearings. The department has not said why it did not appear.

On Thursday, department director Joan Miles said the agency takes all cases of abuse seriously.

"However, specific to the Swan Valley case and alleged claims of abuse against a former employee, any mistakes that our department may have made would not have affected the criminal proceeding of the case," Miles said in a statement. "Due to numerous confidentiality issues, we cannot comment further until we have had a chance to investigate."

Perkins, the former head of the Swan Valley facility, told the (Baltimore) Sun that he was one of the unnamed staffers in the report, but denied the allegations. No criminal charges have been filed.

Larose, with the Montana Advocacy Program, said she was dismayed that authorities failed to follow through and prosecute the findings.

"I think this is an opportunity for the state to examine why and put some procedures and protections in place to make sure this doesn't happen again," she said.

According to the newly released report, investigators documented abuse involving 14 juveniles and found humiliation and cursing were part of the regimen at the Swan Valley facility. The report states that an anonymous staff member later identified as Perkins was aware of the abuse, failed to stop it and also participated in some instances.

The Division of Criminal Investigation at the Montana Department of Justice said Thursday that it had prepared an investigation last summer and gave it to the Lake County attorney. John Strandell, enforcement program manager, said it was up to the county attorney to prosecute.

"Our job is to investigate and provide the facts back," Strandell said, adding that the statute of limitations had expired in many cases, since the allegations involved possible misdemeanors.

Lake County Attorney Mitch Young did not return multiple calls seeking comment.

Strandell said the document was confidential, because it involved a criminal investigation.

Health department officials first released a report in January 2006 that found 19 licensing violations and said teens were often degraded and yelled at by staff members, were forced to do excessive exercise and drink large amounts of water during intake, which caused some to vomit.

The facility also failed to report a suicide attempt, health department officials said.

Report on Swan Valley boot camp prompts former director to resign new job

By JOHN S. ADAMS

Great Falls Tribune

December 14, 2007

BALTIMORE, Md. — The director of Maryland's juvenile detention facilities resigned Thursday, a day after the release of an investigative report alleging he abused juvenile offenders while running a residential treatment center for teens in Montana.

Chris Perkins submitted his resignation Thursday morning to Secretary of Juvenile Services Donald DeVore, said Tammy Brown, a spokeswoman for the department.

On Wednesday, a Lewis and Clark County judge released a redacted Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services investigative report that alleged "substantiated" abuse at Swan Valley Youth Academy while Perkins, 38, was director of the military-style academy for juvenile offenders.

The report states that Perkins "directly abused or neglected youth under his care."

In one instance, the report alleges Perkins "placed a youth in mechanical restraints for the evening directly after a suicide attempt, refusing the youth mental health intervention until the next day."

On another occasion, Perkins allegedly left a teenager in seclusion for five days after the youth refused to cooperate with the intake process.

The investigation also details severe abuses committed by a man identified only as "Staff #1." It alleges that Staff #1 and employees under his direction physically abused cadets by "kicking youth doing exercises, slamming youth against the wall, roughly restraining youth on the tile floor with all of Staff #1's weight on them, and making the youth exercise and drink large quantities of hot/warm water until the youth vomited." The report alleges that Perkins "witnessed many of the youth intakes, and supported Staff #1 in the implementation process."

The facility housed about 25 adjudicated teens at the time of the alleged abuse, according to former Swan Valley employee Gary Schultz. A case worker at the facility until shortly before the state began its investigation, Schultz said many of the teens at the facility suffered from behavioral, mental and emotional problems that staff at the facility were not adequately prepared or trained to handle.

Schultz, who is also a former chemical dependency counselor from Great Falls, said he recognized potential dangers and raised those concerns to Perkins but was ignored.

"I knew that something was going to happen," Schultz said Thursday. "I saw the potential for a cadet getting hurt or abused. I saw that potential escalate to the point where I was afraid to be there, professionally, anymore."

An attorney for the Montana Advocacy Program first brought abuse allegations to local and state authorities in October 2005. Shortly thereafter, DPHHS opened investigations into reported licensing violations and abuse and neglect allegations.

Cornerstone Programs, the private company that ran the state-licensed Swan Valley Youth Academy for more than six years, reportedly fired Perkins shortly after the state finished its investigations. The facility voluntarily closed its doors in February 2006, citing declining enrollment in the program and financial difficulties.

Perkins was hired this summer to help reopen a troubled juvenile facility in Maryland and was recently promoted to direct all youth detention facilities for the state. DeVore told the Baltimore Sun that he was unaware of Perkins' history at Swan Valley when he hired him. Perkins told reporters he didn't reveal his background at the facility to DeVore because he was cleared by Montana officials and said the report was unfairly prejudicial.

Maryland authorities are now reviewing the background check process for applicants in the wake of the scandal. The background check on Perkins didn't uncover the allegations in Montana because the case against him was dismissed on procedural grounds. However, according to a DPHHS lawyer, the investigation substantiated MAP's claims of abuse at the facility. Perkins appealed that determination, but officials for the state failed to appear for the hearing so the case was dropped.

Perkins submitted his resignation to DeVore on Thursday. According to a written statement, Perkins said the recent media attention surrounding the Swan Valley case had become a distraction to the department.

Andrée Larose, the MAP attorney who first discovered the abuse allegations and fought a year-long court battle to unseal the DPHHS abuse investigation, said Perkins' decision to resign was the right one.

"In any juvenile corrections system, there needs to be leadership that is positive and provides support and guidance that children need to become more responsible and law-abiding citizens," Larose said. "The bigger concern is how the state of Montana will act to make sure that substantiations of abuse don't fall through cracks again. I would like to see some reform of how we address these issues in Montana."

Larose added that she still hopes the Lake County Attorney's Office will pursue criminal charges in the case.

"The statute of limitation on assault on a minor is five years. I believe we're still within statute of limitations to pursue some of the offenses that occurred here," she said.

Calls to the Lake County Attorney's Office were not returned Thursday.

Additional Information from International Survivors Action Committee:

Investigative Report from the Montana Division of Child and Family Services

State Investigating Swan Valley Youth Academy

Montana Officials Find Abuse at Swan Valley Youth Academy

Parent Company Drafts Correction Plan for Swan Valley Youth Academy

Swan Valley Youth Academy Closes Following Abuse Investigation

Swan Valley Youth Academy May Reopen in the Future

Report: Prank Call Led To Shock Treatment
Disabled Persons Protection Committee Investigating

WCBV TV

December 18, 2007

BOSTON -- State officials are investigating complaints that staff at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center gave three people -- including two teens -- unnecessary electric shock treatments after receiving a prank phone call from someone pretending to be from the office of the school's founder.

Initial investigations showed that a former student at the school allegedly called in orders for electric shock treatments on Aug. 26 and the Rotenberg center self-reported the prank call and unnecessary treatments the day after they occurred, Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Education and Care, said Monday.

Nancy Alterio, executive director of the state's Disabled Persons Protection Committee, confirmed that her agency is investigating a complaint that an adult at the a residential facility in Stoughton run by the Rotenberg center received unnecessary shock treatments after the phone call.

The complaints have also been referred to the state police and the Norfolk District Attorney's Office, Alterio said.

"The so-called prank call ... was an isolated, unprecedented incident that occurred more than three months ago," the school's senior counsel, Ernest Corrigan, said in a statement released Monday. "We immediately reported it to the appropriate state agencies and the local police."

The state Department of Early Education and Care said it investigated a complaint about two youths -- ages 16 and 19 - who were given unnecessary shock treatments on Aug. 26 after someone claiming to be on the staff of Dr. Matthew Israel -- the psychologist who founded the school -- called the residential facility and ordered the treatments.

"We found that there were breaches of internal control procedures that happened in this particular case," Campbell said. "We take this very seriously."

Two state legislators called on Gov. Deval Patrick to take quick action to put strict regulations in place for the use of shock therapy.

"In a word, this incident is horrifying and it would be immoral for the Legislature and the executive branch not to react strongly and swiftly," said Sen. Brian A. Joyce, who has previously sponsored legislation to ban electric shock therapy.

"This incident has already been addressed and resolved through changes made to JRC's security and operating procedures. Those changes were reported to JRC's state licensing agency as part of their investigation," Corrigan said. "We have modified procedures to assure that an incident of this type cannot occur ever again."

Campbell said the school has submitted a corrective action plan that is now being reviewed by the agency.

Kenneth Mollins, a New York attorney who has filed several lawsuits against the Rotenberg center alleging the mistreatment of children at the Canton-based school, sent a letter Monday to Patrick and various state agencies, calling on the state to investigate the complaints, which were first reported by The Examiner newspaper, of Washington.

"The governor needs to take a look and see what's happening here. There is nobody overseeing the store. If somebody can just call and ask that somebody be shocked, there is a significant problem," Mollins said.

The center, believed to be the only school in the nation that uses skin-shock punishments to stop violent behavior, is no stranger to controversy. It has survived two attempts by the state to close it amid allegations that its unorthodox methods amount to abuse.

Massachusetts was required to pay the center $580,000 after it unsuccessfully sought to close the school following the 1985 death of a 22-year-old student who suffered a seizure while restrained and forced to listen to static noise.

More recently an investigation was ordered to determine if a shock device malfunctioned, causing burns to one student. The center also agreed to stop referring to staff members as psychologists if they have not been licensed with the state.

On Monday, the center defended its use of the intensive treatment methods.

The procedures are applied "only after obtaining prior parental, medical, psychiatric, human rights, peer review and individual approval from a Massachusetts Probate Court," Corrigan said.

City sued over DHS boy's death in Tenn.

By John Sullivan

Philadelphia Enquirer

November 19, 2007

The family of a Philadelphia teenager who was killed when staff at a Tennessee treatment center put him into a restraint hold sued the city yesterday, saying the child-welfare agency sent him there despite warnings that the facility was dangerous.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, alleges that the city's Department of Human Services and a city-associated mental-health organization acted in "shocking disregard" for the safety of Omega Leach, 17, by not warning Family Court about the "manifestly unsafe and dangerous conditions" at the center.

Also named in the suit were the Chad Youth Enhancement Center, the juvenile mental-health center outside Nashville where the boy was fatally injured June 2, and Universal Health Services, the King of Prussia company that owns it.

The suit contends the company was negligent in its oversight of the two employees who put Leach into the hold after he swung at one of them.

Universal Health Services officials did not return a call seeking comment.

A DHS spokesman said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Leach's estate by his mother, Paulette Dolby of West Philadelphia. It notes that a Chad employee called the city in 2005 to warn that Chad workers were using "improper and illegal" force against youths.

While city social workers later stopped short of concluding that unlawful force was being used, they decided that "residents were being harshly and improperly restrained" at Chad. The facility promised to improve.

As The Inquirer has reported about Chad, the suit also notes that a report by city inspectors details how, before Leach's death, a staffer was fired for slamming a child to the ground so hard that the boy fouled himself.

A Family Court judge sent Leach to Chad for mental-health treatment in May after he was arrested for stealing a car.

A month after arriving, Leach argued with a staff member over whether he could stay in his room. The suit alleges that staff members Randall Rae Jr. and Milton Gerald Francis applied a harsh and improper restraint to Leach, and that the fatal injuries were intentional.

In October, a Tennessee medical examiner ruled Leach's death a homicide. Tennessee child-welfare officials also faulted the center for provoking the conflict that led to his death.

No criminal charges have been filed.

Contact staff writer John Sullivan at 215-854-2473 or johnsullivan@phillynews.com.