But at a minimum of $250 per child per day, District officials had by then sent an unprecedented number of kids to The Pines, records show.
- In 2009, DYRS, the city’s juvenile justice agency, sent 103 kids. In 2010, it sent 172.
- In 2008, the D.C. Public Schools were responsible for 27 kids’ education at The Pines. In 2009, that number climbed to 35. In 2010, it hit 40.
- In 2008, the city’s Child and Family Services Agency had as many as four youths at The Pines. In 2009, it had seven. In 2010, it had as many as 10.
Every year, the District sends roughly 500 kids to RTCs. The Pines takes in at least 30 percent of D.C.’s most troubled kids. A census taken in September 2010 from The Pines’ Crawford campus showed that the District had more children there than any state except North Carolina. The city had 31 kids enrolled. Virginia had 29. Maryland had one.
The District relies on The Pines in a variety of ways. Sometimes, kids are sent there while “awaiting placement” elsewhere. Other times, Pines staffers help determine where someone should be placed. “There was an obvious incentive for them to say, ‘Guess what? This person needs The Pines,’” recalls the former District official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the story.
City email records show a warm relationship between officials and Pines staff, notably Randall Goldberg, the former vice president for national marketing at the facility’s then-parent company, Psychiatric Solutions Inc. The records show Goldberg helped attract business to The Pines in part by keeping it friendly—remembering birthdays, liberally using exclamation points and emoticons. After providing the number of a Pines campus, he wrote one D.C. agency staffer: “Do I get to keep a list of times I’ve been helpful?” He added a smiley face.
On the occasion of a child-welfare administrator’s birthday, he gushed: “You look great for 30!!” One Goldberg colleague wished a CFSA worker a “happy hump day!”
Hundreds of email exchanges between Goldberg, his co-workers, and D.C. government personnel show how in the loop the firm was on placement decisions. “Hello ladies,” wrote a Goldberg subordinate to a child-welfare agency administrator on Nov. 3, 2010, “I understand [redacted youth’s name] is resistant to going into RTC placement. Let me know if there is anything I can do to assist.” In an email dated Feb. 16, 2009, Goldberg writes to the agency about several children: “I was hoping you could give me a synopsis of their needs so that we could brainstorm about which programs of ours might be the best match.”
When James Ballard III, the Department of Mental Health’s clinical program manager covering residential treatment centers, wanted advice on keeping kids out of such facilities, he reached out to Goldberg. “I completely get it,” Goldberg replied. “Believe me we are on the same page...When I am in town next (maybe 2 weeks) maybe we can sit down and write down some ideas together?”
Why was the District government asking an RTC marketer for advice on how to not send so many kids to RTCs? “DMH regularly talks to providers, advocates, other child serving agencies about best practices and other models of care that will meet the needs of District youth,” explains a statement forwarded by agency spokeswoman Phyllis Jones. Goldberg, who recently left his position with The Pines’ new parent company, declined comment.
In their many emails, District officials evince little skepticism about The Pines. The same goes for interviews conducted before last week: “It is a D.C. Medicaid approved facility,” Shorter said May 13. “In addition, the proximity of the Pines to D.C. makes a big difference in meeting one of our main goals of keeping young people as close to home as possible.”
Ward 6 D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells, who until recently chaired the council’s Human Services Committee, also said little about the therapeutic or educational upsides when discussing The Pines. “A lot of young adults were sent that were awaiting placement,” he says. “It was used because it was a secure facility that [the District] had under contract—not for any type of treatment.”
Current and former juvenile-justice agency officials cite a more prosaic reason for The Pines’ frequent use: Pines staffers were willing to bring the city’s wards to the Virginia facility. “They come pick the kids up,” says a juvenile-justice official who declined to be quoted by name for fear of being fired. “They go the extra mile. They really do.”
Our Readers Say
Without better accountability, how could anyone know how poor a job UHS / The Pines is doing and how often the children there are abused, neglected, raped, and almost killed?
And how embarrassing that the Virginia DBHDS still lists facilities as licensed for children with "mental retardation." When will Virginia crawl out of the dark ages?
Cases like M, the doctor, nurses, Administration all knew he was on 1:1 for suicide attempt but that unit and other units in that same situation do not get the proper amount of staff scheduled for that type of monitoring. The excuses, they didn't know he was a 1:1 or shortage of staff. Basically, lack of/NO communication and, of course, if something did happen staff is to blame even after pleading with management that they would need extra staff on that particular unit, especially if it was the most hostile unit on campus.
There's a resident who has a history of punching or assaulting female staff. Supposedly charges get pressed, but that boy is stlll there. Pines can't afford to lose the big bucks!
So it's not about watching the kids more closely. When I worked there, I did what I can with what I had. If there were 2 staff to 11 residents, best believe all of them would be sitting in eye view. My best days were with my residents and when management would stay the hell out of my way! They're the laziest bunch of bastards!
TAKE ACTION:
NEEDED PLACE THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE UNDER INVESTIGATION MAKE THEM ACCOUTABLE FOR EVERY CHILD FOUND TO HURT THEMSELVES OR OTHERS. CHILD ABUSE AND NEGELECT CHARGES HOW ARE THEY ANY DIFFRENT THAN THE PARENTS, TEACHERS, COACHES OR ANY ONE ELSE ACUSED.
I interned at DYRS for a year and found the over reliance on RTC's to be troubling, what I found more troubling was that DYRS upper management had no real control over or buy-in from their staff. In fact the idea of waiting out an administration was normative and low and behold there have been what three leaders of DYRS in the last two years.... or is it more. Anyway in defense of the case workers the reliance on a very small number of outside agencies for all therapeutic, vocational, educational, and monitoring services mean that they can easily worm there way out of over-site. And on another note case loads of 30 or 40 youth (who probation could not handle) is to many and way above what is considered a best practice for the industry. Good luck DYRS, there is so much room for improvement.
As for DC, while CFSA sent fewer children to this hellhole than the other agencies, it apparently was the most clueless, remaining willfully ignorant of what the place was doing to children even after the other DC agencies had to face up to it.
And that means the Roque Gerald Apologist Brigade which turned out after his recent resignation, has got some explaining to do.
Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
I contacted the news and fire department and health department multiples time to report things within the facility, but I guess the Pines was putting to much money into the city for anyone to care. I can go on and on but it's probably useless. DC needs to take heed to what others are doing and utilize Foster Care and relative placement instead of the Pines. There is a reason that none of the localities surrounding the Pines send their kids there.
@james- a week in the ward- wow- if if you are that emotional jacked up @ 25, then you need to do us all a favor and take a earlier vacation.
Beat your kids at a earlier age - later in life- you won't have to visit jails, pines, or other places
I have seen first hand, some of the employees go out and purchase Christmas gifts for children who's families didn't want them at home for the holidays. I have heard for myself these children call home and their parents hang up on them and not even want to speak with them. Alot of these kids were abused at home and now these parents who couldn't care for their children and love their children want to complain about the treatment of these children?
I agree that I don't know much about the new management and things may have changed for the worse but I agree with one statement on here...you can't have it both ways. Before we shut down one facility, lets create a better one, a better place for these kids to go and get the help they need.
In a case like this I have to wonder if some kids were properly placed. Maybe some of the more violent and aggressive children needed juvenile detention, and should have received their psychiatric care in that context. Maybe kids needed to be grouped separately. It could have been understaffing, it could have been policy problems, it could have been a matter of not having the right space and supplies to provide proper safety and care. Or it could be a case of exaggeration because I know these type of incidents are inherent to inpatient psych, and a lot of parents like to blame the facility for the problems they created - some parents threaten lawsuits when their child is restrained for trying to beat up staff. Parents like to project their guilt and shame for having a child with these issues onto someone. They go to lawyers, they go to the media, they go tell everyone when a child's violence and misbehavior is not miraculously fixed overnight. It takes years to create these behaviors, and no facility is likely to simply eliminate them - at least not by following current psychiatric guidelines and providing compassionate care.
Does anyone suggest we go back to the Victorian era of protein deprivation, solitary confinement, and chains? Because that would certainly cut down on incidents.
No, I didn't think so.
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