Five months after New Hampshire's Office of the Child Advocate released a report alleging illegal restraints and neglect at the state-run Sununu Youth Services Center, it remains to be seen how state officials, lawmakers and child advocates are addressing problems inside the facility, including reports of serious injuries to staff and residents.
The Child Advocate Office's report has prompted a number of other investigations by a panel of lawmakers, the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire and the state Attorney General’s office, with somewhat conflicting findings.
Lawmakers said in their report that the state's treatment of children inside the center didn't meet the requirements of the law. The Attorney General's office found in a July report that while the youth detention center is in a state of “chronic dysfunction,” the facility is operating within the law and that claims that youth are being abused are unsupported.
The Office of the Child Advocate and the Disability Rights Center have pushed back on the findings in the Attorney General’s report.
Attorney Lisa Wolford, the executive director of the Children’s Law Center of New Hampshire, says it’s not yet clear if the youth detention center’s practices are legal.
Wolford investigated allegations of abuse at the former Youth Development Center during her time with the Attorney General’s office and now represents children in the state’s care. She’s also part of the legislative committee that investigated the recent allegations at the Sununu Youth Services Center.
Wolford spoke with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Barnett about pushing for more legal accountability from the state, where the state’s response has fallen short and what accountability could look like at the youth detention center.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Transcript
You recently had an op-ed in The Union Leader, in which you said that you were surprised by the Attorney General's conclusion in this report. Can you tell us more about that?
I think I would have been surprised as a lawyer, regardless of my prior role at the Attorney General's office, because the report made conclusions of law but didn't refer to statute.
So setting aside the inquiry into the couple of occasions of restraint and seclusion, in which the Attorney General looked at RSA 126-U, which deals with restraint and seclusion, the report failed to rely on any other statute to assess whether that facility was operating according to the law. And there are many, many statutes that prescribe the manner in which SYSC [the Sununu Youth Services Center] must operate, the manner in which it must take care of the children in its custody.
Following this investigation, is there an opportunity for accountability? And if so, what might that look like?
It would be great to understand whether SYSC complies with the law. The Legislature has enacted many, many laws, including HB 49. That law lays out very specific requirements for the facility. Those requirements include providing children who are in the care of the state of New Hampshire — so they're completely dependent on the state of New Hampshire for everything — for the way that therapeutic treatment is provided to them, for the way that they are educated.
Most if not all of the kids at that facility have special education needs. It would be really nice to have a meaningful assessment into whether SYSC complies with state and federal special education law.
I think a problem with the report is the assumption that the investigation has been done and everything is okay. And I know that DCYF [Division for Children, Youth, and Families] wants to do better and ensure that children in its care are not harmed. They are also an employer and must ensure that the staff that they employ and the contractors that they work with are safe. But all that ties back into whether or not the laws were followed. And until we know that, we won't be able to meaningfully address, as a state, either of those things.
What would it take for you or legislators to feel, “Yes, in fact, it is being operated legally.” What would need to happen?
I think that an outside assessment is one thing that could happen. I think that there is no one in the state of New Hampshire who has the requisite expertise to assess the functioning of a juvenile detention facility, SYSC, that exists within the context of the child welfare system in New Hampshire. I think that that's the job for an outside independent assessor.
I think that legislating compliance with the law, which it seems absurd to have to pass laws that say you must follow the law, but I think the Office of the Child Advocate, for example, could be given more enforcement authority.
We talked with the Office of the Child Advocate two weeks ago about whether SYSC could be shut down to give the facility a chance to recalibrate and look at the law and follow the law. The Office of the Child Advocate was of the opinion that roughly six or seven of the children who were there at the time did not have to be in a secure facility. That is something Hampstead Hospital [the state’s psychiatric hospital for children] did with the PRTF.
And the PRTF being?
The PRTF is the highest level of residential treatment facility. It's the Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility [program].
They weren't able to run it in a way that was useful to children or to Dartmouth-Hitchcock [Medical Center], and so they paused and did not serve any children for a period of about three months. That is something that could be considered for SYSC.
