CONCORD, NH – In a scene reminiscent of the Broadway show, “Annie,” New Hampshire’s Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez watched the director of a Tennessee child behavioral center order a young boy to clean a bathroom before the director would use it.
The incident took place on July 11, 2023, when Sanchez, accompanied by Assistant Child Advocate Jennifer Jones, toured the Bledsoe Youth Academy in Gallantin, Tenn., a 30-bed residential treatment center. The purpose of the visit was to check on the well-being of the New Hampshire kids placed there.
They came away calling for the immediate removal of the two New Hampshire boys and with the recommendation that no other children from NH ever be placed there again. Nearly a month later, the two boys are still there.
Sanchez told Manchester Ink Link on Thursday that the issue is there are no Level 3 residential beds available for the teens in New Hampshire or New England. However, she said the state is working on it and she expects the boys to be returned as soon as beds become available.
Sanchez said one of the issues is the staffing challenge for the Level 3 residential program which, because of a shortage of staff, results in beds not being filled.
DCYF staffers have gone to the facility to talk with the two boys but, Sanchez said, they did not take a look at the facility’s operations, talk to staff or tour it. One of the advocates’ recommendations is for the social workers to walk around a facility and not just sit isolated in a room with a child. Still, Sanchez said, she understands that their concern and focus is the child.
She and Jones, on the other hand, toured the facility, met with leadership and spoke to staff about the operation and culture while also talking with the New Hampshire teens. Sanchez said what was upsetting was leadership knew they were coming and usually a facility will put its best foot forward.
“As soon as I walked in the door, seeing what I saw and smelling what I smelled was immediately a red flag,” she said. In the report, the advocates describe the facility as being dirty, operated like a juvenile jail, rigid and institutionalized.
The goal ultimately is to ensure that all New Hampshire children in need of residential treatment be placed in state or at least New England because, Sanchez said, it allows for closer oversight. Ideally, she said, would be for these children to be treated while they are at home or in foster care.
“These are children who have gone through enough already,” she said. “It’s critical we have an opportunity to do the right thing, get them treatment and return them to the community. By ignoring that, we’re leading them down the wrong path. I think the state will pay later if it doesn’t do the right thing.”
As a result of the visit, on Aug. 8 2023, the NH Office of the Child Advocate issued a briefing titled, “Concerns for Out-of-State Residential Facility: Bledsoe Youth Academy.”
According to the report, as of July 1, 2023, NH had 306 children in residential placements with 69 of them placed out-of-state.
“Bledsoe, although reporting to the state of NH to be a Level 3 residential treatment facility, is utilized as a juvenile detention center which was confirmed by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. Although it is difficult to put a price tag on quality therapeutic care, one would be hard-pressed to believe that there is any benefit in spending up to $5,000 per child per month to a facility that is not meeting even the basic standard of care deemed acceptable by the State of New Hampshire,” according to the report.
Bledsoe is operated under contract by Youth Opportunity Investments and is a residential treatment program for both juvenile delinquent and dependent and neglected youth placed into state custody, according to its website. It says it provides cognitive behavioral therapy for boys ages 13 to 18 with severe behavioral issues.
The advocates, however, describe the place as being dirty, run more like a juvenile jail and with its operation rigid and institutionalized. “The facility operates on a culture of fear and humiliation,” the advocates say.
The perimeter of Bledsoe is surrounded by a tall chain link fence with what appears to be chicken wire across the top and two entrances/exits. The kids are dressed in uniforms and jumpsuits. The color of the uniforms indicates behavioral needs and/or punishments; kids deemed dangerous or violent wear red jumpsuits; those suffering disciplinary consequences are in lime green; kids wearing tan jumpsuits are considered unsafe to themselves.
“These ‘uniforms’ are not only dehumanizing and institutional, but they also violate each kid’s privacy by broadcasting to the community their personal struggles,” the report says.
Cameras are everywhere, even in the boys’ bedrooms. Their only privacy they have is in the shower or toilet area.
Half the building was under construction at the time of the tour after a kid accidentally hit one of the sprinkler heads with his foot while laying on a top bunk, activating it. The director informed the advocate the kid was on “punishment for a month” for the damage caused.
The NH kids reported staff read their files and used information from them to berate and insult all kids into compliance. They heard staff say to other kids “you are here because your uncle raped you” and the kids reported being told “you are here because your mams don’t love you.” The advocates asked, “What is that like for you?” One child became emotional and his eyes welled with tears as he said, “It’s horrible.”
The New Hampshire kids told the advocates that staff offer kids incentives to assault other “problematic” kids. For example, if a kid is giving staff a difficult time another kid might be asked by staff to go after him physically and would be rewarded by staff with a snack or some other incentive.
The kids observed others being injured when staff restrained them. Specifically, kids suffered rug burns to their faces while in prone restraints on the carpeted floor. The director confirmed it and said she asked staff to use a towel or sheet on the floor first. The advocates were concerned that practice could cause further harm due to possible suffocation.
The kids also described how some restraints involved arms being held behind them like “arm bars” while being pushed with their stomach up against a wall and lifted with feet off the floor by restraining staff.
As they toured the center, the advocates came across a boy sitting on a dirty, sticky, carpeted floor eating his lunch separate from the rest of the kids in the cafeteria. Asked why, he said he was “on restriction.”
That, the advocates say, is evidence of “a culture of shame, humiliation, and inhumane punishment endemic to the program. “
Bedrooms accommodate five kids with some rooms having additional mattresses on the floor because two bedrooms were under construction. The advocates noted that there were very few personal items in the rooms. Children are not allowed to wear their own clothes; the regular uniform consists of a maroon or blue polo shirt and black pants or shots. “Further evidence of a culture that is not responsive to children’s personal needs,” the report says.
At 6 a.m., kids must get up, make their beds, clean their space and get out for the day. Bedtime is 9 p.m.
While touring a couple of bedrooms with the Advocates, the director reported that a room was not to her standard. When asked to expand, she pointed out that a pillowcase was on one of the beds, and that was unacceptable. She ran her finger over a baseboard and said that it was dirty, pointing to dust on her fingertip. Then she said she was “finna get them in trouble” once the tour was complete.
“Of note, most areas throughout the entire facility felt unclean, had a smell like mold coupled with chemicals, and were generally unkept, including the director’s own office. The kids’ standard was inconsistent with the rest of the facility’s conditions,” the report says.
It was at the main entrance where the advocates observed two kids, one of whom was from NH and who was wearing a lime green jumpsuit, cleaning the common areas with a staff member monitoring. It included mopping, cleaning glass windows, collecting trash, etc. The director excused herself to use the restroom and called to one of the kids to come clean the bathroom better before she was to use it. The kid went into the bathroom, and cleaned what was pointed out before the director entered it. “This is further evidence of an unhealthy and demeaning culture, coming from the top administrator,” the advocates say.
The director spoke highly of how the program gave back to the local community, the report said. The kids, she said, cleaned headstones in a cemetery across the street and picked up trash on the side of the road a few miles from the program. There is a video of the kids picking up litter on the side of a busy road near an “adopt a street” sign advertising Bledsoe Youth Academy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zrl5rhL4jg
“Community connections are critical to healthy development, but when the community service activities are that of an adult prisoner, this does not lead to positive community connection, rather, further demeans and stigmatized the kids,” the advocates say.
The report also said Bledsoe fails to provide the necessary therapeutic milieu and medical care the children need. Kids have one scheduled session a week with a clinician. The kids told the advocates that group therapy “sucks.”
One boy said he wanted to return to NH’s juvenile detention center. “I would rather be committed there than be here.” He said he contemplated turning to criminal behavior for the short-term goal of leaving Bledsoe. He said clinical support at the Sununu Youth Services Center were far more supportive to him and educated on the topic of trauma. Both kids said they wanted to leave.
When leaving Bledsoe, the advocates said they walked away with an overwhelming feeling of concern for all kids in this program.
“While the program may have a few positives, the totality of concerns made it difficult to see any benefit in placing NH children at this facility. Carpeting can be replaced, walls painted, new furniture purchased, but a culture deeply rooted in punitive and dysfunctional practices must first be acknowledged and then changed, which is a lengthy process. A facility cannot boast clinical offerings while simultaneously allowing staff to abuse and neglect children behind the tall fencing, brick walls and locked doors that provide a visual of a youth detention center,” according to the report.
In response to the release of the report, Jake Leon, Communications Director for NH DHHS, released the following statement:
“We are grateful to the Office of the Child Advocate for their report and ongoing engagement with us on these cases. We take these concerns very seriously. Since the OCA first contacted the Department about its concerns, DHHS and DCYF leadership have proactively engaged with the New Hampshire youths at the facility, including the arrangement of site visits as well as communication with Tennessee health and human services counterparts. The youths involved will receive individualized service plans to ensure their safety and determine the best could of action to get them on the track for success.
“There are currently 12 youths placed in residential care outside of New England, the lowest in memory. In the new state budget, the New Hampshire Legislature provided new funding for contracted residential services in NH and neighboring states to increase high-quality bed capacity to ensure a system that helps kids receive top-notch care closer to home. In addition, over the past several years, the implementation of the juvenile justice and Children’s System of Care strategies has led to more youth receiving services in the community and fewer youth placed in residential settings. We will continue active collaboration with the OCA on all ongoing efforts to improve residential and community-based services and ensure the best possible outcomes for youth and their families.”
Full report is below:
