An investigation conducted by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office in response to recent allegations of mistreatment at the state’s youth detention facility did not uncover abuse or other violations of state law, but investigators concluded the facility “operates with a high degree of dysfunction at all levels.”
A 56-page report released Tuesday describes an institution in crisis, permeated by frequent violence, dire understaffing, a lack of leadership, dueling staff factions, and dissent among top administrators.
“We conclude that [the Sununu Youth Services Center] does not have sufficient levels of experienced staff to operate safely, that lack of accountability for both youth and staff hinders safe and effective operations at SYSC, and that the disconnection and dysfunction within the administration team has created a culture and climate within SYSC that is plagued with operational issues at every level,” the investigators wrote.
The probe had been requested by Gov. Kelly Ayotte after a pair of watchdog organizations reported concerns this spring about conditions and treatment of children held at the Manchester facility.
The attorney general’s investigation concluded that the most serious allegations raised by the Office of the Child Advocate and Disability Rights Center of NH were unsupported by the evidence reviewed. The agencies had raised concerns about a variety of issues, including the improper use of physical restraints, a weeks-long restriction on children’s movement and limited educational instruction.
“We conclude that SYSC is operating within legal boundaries and that claims that youth are currently being abused are unsupported,” the attorney general’s report stated.
The report encouraged the Department of Health and Human Services — which runs the facility through the Division for Children, Youth and Families — to address its staffing shortage and consider implementing body-worn cameras for staff, among other recommendations. Department Commissioner Lori Weaver said in a statement following the report’s release that the agency would adopt both recommendations.
The investigation focused only on the recent allegations and not on those raised in more than 1,600 lawsuits filed against the state over the past several years, which involve claims of abuse in youth facilities from as early as the 1960s.
The attorney general’s office is defending against those lawsuits and presumably would defend against any new legal claims that arise against the facility.
The attorney general’s investigation is one of four initiated this spring. In May, a legislative committee called for more than two dozen changes at the facility. Investigations conducted by the Office of the Child Advocate and Disability Rights Center remain ongoing.
Michael Todd, a lawyer at the Disability Rights Center, said in a statement following the release of the report that his organization believes the children at the facility “continue to face substantial risk of serious harm.” He called on the agency to install “an independent outside expert in juvenile justice and trauma-informed care” while it seeks a permanent new director for the facility.
Neither Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez nor Sen. Victoria Sullivan, who led the legislative review, immediately responded to requests for comment on the attorney general’s findings.
The attorney general’s investigation did not involve interviews with any of the approximately 15 children currently held at the facility, who raised the allegations. Instead, it relied on interviews with 40 current and former employees and a review of hundreds of hours of video footage, emails, notes, incident reports and other records from the facility.
A spokesperson from the attorney general’s office declined to comment on why investigators didn’t interview children.
Violence and restraints
Multiple children at the facility caused significant injuries to staff, according to the report. Efforts to restrain the children were justified, the attorney general’s office found.
The agency reported that:
- In late January, a child punched a staff member in the face, breaking his jaw.
- In late January, a child broke through two doors into a closed area with an empty swimming pool. The child “armed himself with debris” and was restrained. No one was hurt.
- On May 3, a child punched a supervisor in the head “five or six times.” Another child punched a separate employee “several times in the head.” The report indicates that a total of five staff members were injured that day, though it is unclear how the rest experienced their injuries.
- On June 2, a supervisor was “transported for stitches in head.”
In terms of the use of restraints, the report focused most on a March 17 incident, in which it found that a child was placed in a “prone” restraint on three separate occasions for a total of about four minutes. A “prone” restraint refers to forcing someone to lie on their stomach, which is known to restrict breathing.
State law prohibits staff from placing children in that position unless it is required temporarily to transition to an alternative, safer form of restraint.
The attorney general’s office found that placing the child in the prone restraint did not violate the law because it was “temporary” in nature. The report also analyzed how the child broke a bone in his hand, noting that there was a dispute between him and staff about whether it was self-inflicted or caused by an altercation while he was being moved to a different room in the facility.
Seclusion and “lockdown”
The late-January injuries to staff occurred just as a new leader of the facility was starting. Investigators found that the new bureau chief, Joshua Nye, implemented a series of restrictions on the movement of children in the facility, which included significantly reduced educational time and meals in the facility’s unit. (Nye resigned from the position in May; he was interviewed as part of the investigation.)
The Office of the Child Advocate had reported the facility had been placed in “lockdown” for several weeks. Staff disputed that characterization, and the attorney general’s office found that it was not an “official operational status.”
The attorney general’s office concluded: “While the provision of educational services could have been managed better during this period, we find that neither educational services specifically nor the residential schedule generally were unreasonably changed given the escalated level of dysregulation and safety risks to youth and staff within the facility.”
Leadership and staff disputes
Significant disputes among both rank-and-file employees and members of leadership are present at the facility, according to the report.
Part of the dissension stems from an “ongoing philosophical debate” regarding how to prioritize the goals of “clinical treatment” versus “maintaining safety,” according to the report.
“It quickly became clear that the staff consistently fracture onto one ‘side’ or the other, beginning with the administration team and trickling down, and that the lack of leadership on this issue paralyzes the facility’s ability to operate effectively,” the report stated.
The attorney general’s office indicated that clinical staff, who are responsible for treatment, and youth counselors, who are responsible for facility security, are often at odds. Some clinical staff blamed youth counselors for the injuries they experienced, stating that they were the result of incompetence or failing to act in a “trauma-informed manner”, according to the report.
At the highest level of the organization, two members of the leadership team were seen as “treatment-focused” and two others were seen as “security-focused,” according to the report.
“The administration team appears fractured at best, and it does not appear that the team has made significant efforts to resolve the obvious disconnects among them,” the report stated.
The report presented a nuanced picture of Joshua Nye, the facility’s highest-ranking official, whose resignation came after less than four months on the job. While noting that significant issues existed before his tenure, the report stated that he wasn’t “faultless” either.
“It appears likely that [Nye] lacked the professional maturity to excel in his high-ranking position,” the report stated.
Understaffing
The report concluded that the root of many of the facility’s challenges boils down to a significant lack of staff, which can make minor incidents more dangerous and contribute to restrictions on children’s movement.
The facility is currently authorized to have 46 positions, but an unknown number are unfilled. Last week, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said that State Police currently have a temporary presence in the facility due to understaffing.
“It is virtually impossible to see any of the myriad issues facing SYSC improving with increasing qualified staff levels,” the report stated.
