SARAH COOKE
Associated Press Writer
Helena Independent Record
December 24, 2005
HELENA — Officials with a private residential treatment center for teen boys north of Condon said Friday the facility is being investigated by the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Joe Newman, who helps run the Colorado-based company that opened Swan Lake Youth Academy in 2000, said Cornerstone Programs is cooperating with DPHHS but did not know the nature of the probe.
“Their investigation is ongoing. That’s all I can tell you,” said Mark Mizner-Welch, the academy’s acting director.
Andree Larose, a Montana Advocacy Program attorney, said an investigation began last month after DPHHS received a letter she wrote alleging everything from physical assault to verbal abuse and license violations. She is representing a former Swan Lake resident.
DPHHS spokeswoman Gayle Shirley said she could find no record of a licensing investigation involving the facility. All department abuse and neglect investigations are confidential, she said.
During her own investigation, Larose said she found that teens at the military-style academy are shoved and yelled at by staff members. Some, she said, vomit or faint from exhaustion when forced to do excessive physical activity during intake and are given nicknames like “blubber butt,” “dumb ass” and “fatso.”
“This facility represents itself as providing treatment for children,” Larose said. “I don’t think the military model and the type of harsh treatment that engenders it fits in with the mental health treatment model.
“That’s our concern is that the whole culture is to treat kids harshly and without much empathy.”
Swan Valley is licensed by DPHHS and is under contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons. The 100-acre facility accepts boys ages 13 to 18 who are referred through the court system, the academy’s Web site states. They generally stay six to 12 months, attending classes while undergoing therapy and chemical dependency treatment if needed.
The academy’s Web site states it uses a “military therapeutic model” to provide “structure, discipline and integrity.” The Web site characterizes typical residents as angry, defiant, disrespectful and emotionally troubled teen boys who “often have one or more learning disabilities” and have been to other treatment centers.
“They do not like to follow rules, often breaking curfew, lying, stealing monies from their parents or shoplifting, and running with a rough crowd of peers. .. They are described by their parents as ‘out-of-control,’ “ the Web site states.
In her letter, Larose details 13 incidents of alleged abuse and neglect dating back to 2003.
In one, she writes of a 220-pound staff member putting his full body weight on top of a 13-year-old and shoving the teen against a wall. In another, Larose claims staff members were heard making bets over who could make a new intake vomit first, while another allegation accuses a staff member of slamming a teen into a brick wall for not standing in the food line as ordered.
Larose also writes of a teen made to stand with his back to a class and face against a wall for one week. He could leave to eat, but then had to return to the wall. It was punishment, she said, for not responding to an order during intake as fast as staff members thought he should have.
Larose also accuses Swan Lake staff of putting teens in locked seclusion in violation of licensing requirements and safety considerations.
“I am alarmed by what I have discovered,” she wrote.
Larose initially sent her letter to Lake County Attorney Bob Long, who forwarded it to DPHHS.
“To me, the main issue I’ve been able to gather so far is a licensing one. ... If things are happening there that shouldn’t be happening that’s a license issue,” he said.
