[Pnews] US government uses several clandestine shelters to detain immigrant children

Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Wed Mar 20 13:30:44 EDT 2019


https://www.revealnews.org/article/us-government-uses-several-clandestine-shelters-to-detain-immigrant-children/ 



  US government uses several clandestine shelters to detain immigrant
  children

By Aura Bogado and Patrick Michels / March 18, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The federal government is relying on secret shelters to hold 
unaccompanied minors, in possible violation of the long-standing rules 
for the care of immigrant children, a Reveal investigation has found.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, the government agency that cares for 
unaccompanied minors, has never made the shelters’ existence public or 
even disclosed them to the minors’ own attorneys in a landmark 
class-action case.

It remains unclear how many total sites are under operation, but there 
are at least five in Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, holding at least 16 boys and girls for the refugee agency, 
some as young as 9 years old.

Minors being held at the clandestine facilities initially were placed at 
known shelters around the country but later were transferred to these 
off-the-books facilities that specialize in providing for youth with 
mental health and behavioral challenges.

The refugee agency’s standards for transferring youth 
<https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/resource/children-entering-the-united-states-unaccompanied-section-1#1.2> 
in its care state that the agency “makes every effort to place children 
and youth within the ORR funded care provider network,” but makes room 
for out-of-network transfers, adding that “there may be instances when 
ORR determines there is no care provider available within the network to 
provide specialized services needed for special needs cases. In those 
cases, ORR will consider an alternative placement.”

Under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a 1997 pact that sets the 
standards for how unaccompanied minors are treated while detained and 
calls for their swift release, the federal government is supposed to 
provide attorneys representing detained children with a regular and 
detailed census of each minor in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s 
custody. The practice appears to violate the long-held agreement.


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Holly Cooper, who represents the class of unaccompanied minors in the 
agency’s care, says the government failed in its obligation to report 
every minor’s location – and believes the refugee agency still is 
withholding information about other locations, even after being pressed 
to do so.

“Detained unaccompanied children with mental health issues are some of 
the most vulnerable children, and when the government does not provide 
access to their whereabouts, it calls into question the basic 
underpinnings of our democratic institutions,” Cooper said.

Cooper learned about one of the facilities months ago. After requesting 
information about additional sites, she learned about several others. 
Now, she told Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, she’s 
still getting credible information that the list the government provided 
to her is incomplete.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement acknowledged a request for comment 
but hadn’t yet responded to specific questions by the time this story 
was published.

Robert Carey, who directed the agency during the final two years of the 
Obama administration, said that as far as he knew, no such arrangements 
were in place before Donald Trump became president.

“If that was happening, it was something that I was not aware of,” he said.

Some facilities, he said, occasionally would subcontract specialized 
medical or educational services. But Carey said he wasn’t aware of 
children being housed outside of publicly disclosed shelters.

“We had pretty exhaustive oversight procedures and monitoring 
procedures,” he said. “If any of those standards are being lessened or 
compromised, that would obviously be cause for concern. These systems 
are in place for a reason. There’s an inherent vulnerability in the care 
for children.”

One of the care providers, Millcreek Behavioral Health 
<https://www.millcreekbehavioralhealth.com/> in Fordyce, Arkansas, 
operates as a residential treatment center and is holding at least eight 
children in the refugee agency’s custody, according to information 
obtained by Reveal. Inspection reports obtained by Reveal do not suggest 
any serious state violations; 911 service call records to the facility 
were requested by Reveal in December, but the local office of emergency 
management hasn’t decided whether to release the documents.

Another provider, Rolling Hills Hospital 
<https://www.rollinghillshospital.com/> in Ada, Oklahoma, is a facility 
for children and adults that is holding at least one minor in the 
refugee agency’s custody. An investigation by The Oklahoman 
<https://newsok.com/article/5619558/patients-at-rolling-hills-hospital-suffer-broken-bones-head-injuries> 
published earlier this year revealed that patients complained of broken 
bones, along with “allegations of sexual harassment and physical abuse” 
at the hospital. A 2017 inspection report 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5772258-Rolling-Hills-2017-inspection-report.html> 
reviewed by Reveal describes multiple violations, including employees 
who said the hospital failed to provide staff orientation, patient 
records that indicated registered nurses had not provided necessary 
assessments, and a facility where patient deaths went unreported to the 
governing body for oversight.

Officials with the care facilities either declined to comment or did not 
respond to emails and phone messages from Reveal.

“I don’t have anybody that needs to comment,” said Pam Burford, an 
administrator at Millcreek Behavioral Health.

Néstor Dubón, a sponsor for an asylum-seeking cousin who’s being held at 
Millcreek, hasn’t visited the site but describes it as a better 
alternative to the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center, a 
shelter whose federal contract came to an end in 2018, where Dubón’s 
cousin previously was held. Dubón was told that his cousin would be 
transferred to Arkansas but was unaware that the facility’s use as a 
shelter wasn’t public. No matter where his cousin is being held, Dubón’s 
chief concern is his cousin’s release. He said he’s met all the 
requirements asked of him by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to gain 
his cousin’s freedom.

“I’ve given my fingerprints three times – three times!” Dubón said. 
“I’ve obtained and shared birth certificates and powers of attorney from 
Honduras and for what? He’s still there.”

Dubón’s 16-year-old cousin has been in the agency’s custody since he 
first entered the United States more than two years ago.

Both Millcreek and Rolling Hills are owned and operated by Acadia 
Healthcare. Reveal has determined that 50 of Acadia’s facilities – 
operating in 23 states and Puerto Rico – provide residential care for 
minors, but it’s unclear how many of those facilities serve youth in the 
refugee agency’s custody.

Acadia has been publicly traded on the NASDAQ 
<https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/achc> for nearly a decade. With hundreds 
of facilities <http://www.acadiahealthcare.com/investors> and a capacity 
of over 18,000 beds, it is one of the largest treatment networks in the 
country. Its services include care for behavioral health and addiction.

In November, a critical investor detailed 
<https://seekingalpha.com/article/4222788-acadia-healthcare-scary-findings-14-month-investigation> 
a litany of abuse allegations at Acadia-run facilities, including 
Rolling Hills. A December 2017 lawsuit accused 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5775153-20171217-Edwards-v-Rolling-Hills-Complaint.html> 
Acadia and Rolling Hills of permitting ongoing sexual abuse inside a 
facility for children, destroying video evidence and refusing access to 
a state investigator.

Former Acadia CEO Joey Jacobs has acknowledged that regulatory problems 
led some states to temporarily stop referring people to Acadia 
facilities. But Jacobs announced those problems had been resolved, at 
least in a call with investors 
<https://seekingalpha.com/article/4218734-acadia-healthcare-achc-q3-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single> 
in November 2018.

“We’re a large company with a large number of facilities,” he said. “So 
at any time, we can have an inspection go bad or an incident occur or an 
investigation be instigated.”

Jacobs left the company 
<https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/12/17/acadia-to-owe-jacobs-more-than-10-million.html> 
in December. Acadia has accumulated $3.2 billion in debt from buying up 
local care centers, prompting critical attention 
<https://www.axios.com/acadia-healthcare-debt-executive-stock-sales-6abb6438-1d02-4072-a1e8-39615213f085.html> 
from investors who doubt that it can be paid off.

Acadia Healthcare did not return a call for comment for this story.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement also hasn’t disclosed that it houses 
children at Devereux, a nonprofit behavioral health organization based 
in Pennsylvania that operates in multiple states, Reveal has confirmed. 
One of its facilities in Florida is holding at least five minors for the 
federal agency. The previously undisclosed care network also includes 
residential treatment centers operated by KidsPeace and Youth For 
Tomorrow. These two organizations already 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5008908-ORR-Shelter-Contract-KidsPeace.html> 
contract 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5009010-ORR-Shelter-Contract-Youth-for-Tomorrow.html> 
with the government as shelter providers, offering general care. But 
they don’t have public agreements to provide the more intensive 
behavioral and mental health care of a residential treatment center.

KidsPeace communications director Bob Martin told Reveal that there were 
“a very small number of cases” in which his organization has accepted 
children from other refugee agency shelters for placement in its 
residential treatment center. In those cases, he said, no new contracts 
were signed, beyond what he called a “letter of agreement” with the agency.

“It’s been an extremely rare occurrence,” Martin said.

Martin said any questions about government oversight in those cases 
should be answered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Courtney Gaskins, director of program services for Youth For Tomorrow, 
confirmed that the refugee agency has requested that her organization 
take children in its residential treatment wing.

“We’ve gotten requests for those,” she said. But Gaskins declined to say 
whether her organization has ever agreed to do so. “I wouldn’t comment 
if we did,” she said.

Reveal reviewed federal contract and grant awards to Youth For Tomorrow 
and KidsPeace but found no mention of residential treatment center services.

Some of the nonprofit organizations involved in this network are 
well-monied and hold powerful connections in the media and government. 
Devereux’s board includes James H. Schwab, who, according to his 
LinkedIn profile <https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-schwab-2aa06113b/>, 
was the president of Vice Media until December and remains a board 
member and senior adviser at Vice. Oliver North and Fox News analyst 
Brit Hume sit on the Youth For Tomorrow board of directors.

In a statement to Reveal, Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, called 
the arrangement “incredibly disturbing.”

“Imagine being a child in a strange country, hundreds or thousands of 
miles from where you grew up, surrounded by people who may not speak 
your language. You would be incredibly vulnerable – which is exactly why 
ORR is supposed to follow strict regulations governing where these 
children can be held and what child welfare standards must be met.”

Merkley has introduced a bill 
<https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/390788-senator-presses-for-more-access-to-facilities-housing-migrant-children> 
that would require shelter operators to grant access to members of Congress.

“ORR needs to provide answers immediately about where they are holding 
asylum-seeking children, and what, if any, child welfare regulations 
those facilities are meeting,” he said.

The lack of disclosure of facilities where unaccompanied minors are held 
leaves a vacuum of public oversight. It’s unclear how the refugee agency 
regulates and inspects these facilities. For its publicly listed 
shelters, the agency sets a minimum staff-to-children ratio 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5009000-ORR-Shelter-Contract-Southwest-Key-Programs.html#document/p11/a487302> 
and training requirements 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5009000-ORR-Shelter-Contract-Southwest-Key-Programs.html#document/p21/a487300> 
and conducts announced and unannounced inspections 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5009000-ORR-Shelter-Contract-Southwest-Key-Programs.html#document/p30/a487304>. 
One possibility is that shelter providers are subcontracting the care of 
certain children to another care provider.

According to cooperative agreements between the refugee agency and 
residential care providers, which Reveal acquired 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/search/projectid:41141-ORR-grants-and-contracts> 
after filing a lawsuit 
<https://www.revealnews.org/blog/the-government-wont-release-records-on-housing-migrant-children-so-we-sued/> 
under the Freedom of Information Act, shelters may subcontract services 
to other entities. In those cases, the federal agency holds the shelter 
responsible 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5009000-ORR-Shelter-Contract-Southwest-Key-Programs.html#document/p25/a487220> 
for ensuring that “sub-recipients” maintain the same standards of care 
required by law.

Reveal filed FOIA requests in the fall for information about any 
subcontracts or out-of-network care contracts to care for unaccompanied 
children. The government has yet to respond.

/This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and Matt Thompson and copy 
edited by Nikki Frick./

/Aura Bogado can be reached at //abogado at revealnews.org/ 
<mailto:abogado at revealnews.org>/, and Patrick Michels can be reached at 
//pmichels at revealnews.org/ <mailto:pmichels at revealnews.org>/. Follow 
them on Twitter: //@aurabogado/ <https://twitter.com/aurabogado>/and 
//@PatrickMichels/ <https://twitter.com/patrickmichels>/./


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