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Hastings troubled-youth facility
has troubles of its own
A youth-care worker is
arrested for trying to sell marijuana
A worker is charged with pulling a knife on a 16-year-old
A worker is fired after sexual touching with a 16-year-old
October 20, 2007
By Deirdre Conner
HASTINGS - Teens are sent to the
Hastings Youth Academy with a criminal past and a tenuous future.
But the facility, designed to turn
young criminal offenders' lives around, has become mired in
allegations of drugs, assaults and romantic liaisons.
State officials said they are
concerned. They have required a corrective plan from the private
company that has a $19.3 million contract to run the youth academy,
but the three-year taxpayer-funded contract isn't in jeopardy.
The firm, Group 4 Securicor Youth
Services, acknowledges the program has been what Chief Executive
Officer Gail Browne calls "declining," but it promises change.
Among the most serious allegations
about the Hastings Youth Academy since Group 4 Securicor Youth
Services took over a year and a half ago:
- Two workers were arrested for
crimes involving youths at the facility.
- Three workers were found to be
having romantic relationships with youths.
- State inspectors were called to
the facility nine times and substantiated seven misconduct claims;
others are pending.
- Four youths escaped during that
time, all in a six-month period in late 2006.
"I will tell you that we're
concerned - we're very concerned - about ... Hastings," Department
of Juvenile Justice Secretary Walter McNeil told the Times-Union
last month while in Jacksonville for public hearings.
McNeil, appointed in January by
Gov. Charlie Crist, said the state is working to resolve issues
there.
"We will not stand for any
[employee], whether it's a DJJ employee or a contractor employee,
mistreating the children," McNeil said.
This isn't the first time a Group 4
Securicor-run Northeast Florida facility has made headlines. Last
year, a Jacksonville teen died at Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender
Corrections Center. Workers thought he was playing a prank - by
lying motionless and unresponsive - and didn't immediately call 911.
Keeping the Sheriff's Office
busy
Hastings Youth Academy is designed
for juvenile offenders considered "high risk" or "moderate risk,"
which means they could have committed crimes that range from
trespassing on school property to aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon.
The St. Johns County Sheriff's
Office was called to the Florida 207 facility about 150 times from
January 2006 to Sept. 11, according to Sheriff's Office statistics.
The calls include everything from incidents of escape to assault to
drugs being found.
In some cases, there have been
allegations of inappropriate touching by staff members or of
staffers selling drugs to the 14- to 19-year-old males housed there.
In two of the most recent
incidents, youth care worker Paulette Michner was arrested on
charges of taking marijuana into the facility to sell and this
spring, youth care worker Cynthia Terrell was fired after videotapes
showed her and witnesses told of her engaging in sexual touching
with a youth during class. She wasn't charged with a crime because
the youth was 16 and was the one touching her, according to St.
Johns County Sheriff's Office spokesman Chuck Mulligan.
Browne said the company is
"ruthless" when it comes to reporting such incidents and has a low
tolerance for employee misconduct.
She places some of the blame for
problems on a lack of money. She said that has kept front-line staff
salaries down - some are paid $8 an hour - and leads to trouble
recruiting staff members who are more likely to stay out of trouble.
"Over the years, that has really
hurt the program, all of our programs - but especially Hastings,"
Browne said. She said the facility's remote location in western St.
Johns County and its proximity to St. Augustine mean more enjoyable
service jobs are available elsewhere.
A change of service course
Soon the facility will house only
moderate-risk youths, with the high risks already transferred and
those spaces being converted to use by moderate-risk youths who need
intensive mental health services.
A new administrator also will
arrive at Hastings this month, Browne said. The last two left for
other positions within the company.
Lisa Steely, juvenile coordinator
for the Public Defender's Office in Jacksonville, said she's
encouraged by the new secretary, McNeil, but is waiting to see if
cash and action follows.
She said juvenile justice programs
have suffered since privatization because of low funding and
inadequate oversight.
"Taking a kid and warehousing them
for six to nine months if you don't deal with underlying problems
won't help," Steely said.
Michael O'Loughlin, who oversees
St. Johns County school system-run classes at the Hastings Youth
Academy, said he believes the new administration at Hastings is
trying to resolve the problems.
The school system has no control
over the facilities, and teachers at Hastings have told their
principal they were at times afraid to venture into the hallways
because of disturbances.
"We're very much trying to be
supportive of their efforts," he said.
If the institution isn't under
control, he said, it's hard for the district's teachers to do their
job.
"What we're trying to do is ...
make sure that things that happen outside the classroom don't
interfere," he said.
deirdre.conner@jacksonville.com
(904) 359-4504
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THE LIST GOES ON
Among the incidents reported at the
Hastings Youth Academy in the past year and a half:
DRUGS
Marijuana found
Marijuana is found under a sink and
three youths test positive for the drug. Case manager Patrick Fessel,
the former facility administrator, is reprimanded more than a year
after the incident for improperly supervising visitors, who
introduced the contraband. (Feb. 23, 2006)
Pills found
A bag of the psychotropic drug
Adderall is found. It was determined inmates were "cheeking" the
pills - holding them in their mouth instead of swallowing them.
(Sept. 15, 2006)
Worker sells drugs
Youth-care worker Paulette Michner
is arrested on charges of taking marijuana into the facility to sell
to at least one and possibly two students. (Aug. 31)
YOUTH/STAFF CONTACT
Text messages
After a youth is found with a cell
phone, administrators discover he had been trading romantic text
messages with youth care worker Dawnyell Denson. She was suspended
and never returned for a conference, which constituted an automatic
resignation according to the facility's policy. (May 19, 2006)
Porn found
A youth reports that mental-health
therapist Robert L. Harris Jr. was viewing pornography on his office
computer while on duty. The investigation was inconclusive as to
whether another employee shared it with youths. Both were terminated
for other reasons. (Dec. 7)
Love letters
Youth care worker Graciela DeLeon
was found to be trading romantic letters with a youth. She was
terminated Feb. 17. (Feb. 7)
Classroom touching
A youth anonymously reports that
worker Cynthia Terrell and another youth were engaging in sexual
touching during a class. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office
declines to arrest her because the youth was 16 and because she was
allowing him to touch her, not the reverse. She was terminated May
1. (April 25)
ASSAULTS
Unreported incident
State investigators find a
supervisor forged the signature of a youth and refused to allow him
to call an abuse hotline after he was hit in the head by a radio
thrown by a youth-care worker in September 2006, an incident that
sent the youth to the hospital. Shift supervisor Tyrone Wilkerson
was terminated Dec. 26. The youth-care worker, Ramon Powell, also
was terminated. (Dec. 12)
Threat with knife
Youth-care worker Kevin Dewayne
Ford was charged with aggravated assault after a surveillance tape
showed him pulling a knife from his pocket and flicking it open
during an argument with a 16-year-old inmate. (June 22)
Source: Florida Department of
Juvenile Justice, St. Johns County Sheriff's Office
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