Family Court chief judge asks: Why no money in state budget for girls treatment center?
The chief judge of Rhode Island's Family Court planned to meet with Gov. Dan McKee this week about building a residential treatment center for adolescent girls – a project with wide support, considering Rhode Island has for years sent girls with complex behavioral and mental health needs out of state at a cost of about $13 million annually.
But perhaps indicative of uncertainties swirling around the proposal, Judge Michael B. Forte canceled his meeting with the governor, he says, after it seemed his administration didn’t want to provide him a copy of a consultant’s draft report on a proposed facility.
“They claimed they’d emailed it to us Friday but no one could find it, and when they did, no one could open it,” said Forte. “We had to send someone over there to get a copy. There was no point in meeting with him if I hadn’t seen the report ahead of time.”
Forte is now wondering where the governor stands on the project, considering his budget for the next fiscal year lacks money to start building (though it does include $6 million for local private providers to expand psychiatric services).
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“We are all very concerned that we didn’t see anything in the governor's budget proposal. We’ve heard all the excuses over the money and whatnot. Well, [this year] they have the money. Everyone seemed to want to do this, but I have not heard the governor come out and state that this is a priority of his. The questions seem to get bigger and bigger every day.”
“Those of us on the outside who just want to see something happen for these kids are very frustrated.”
In a statement Friday, McKee’s spokeswoman Alana O’Hare said “there are additional proposals” being vetted in the General Assembly to build a treatment program. “The governor looks forward to identifying the best solutions to expand residential treatment within the state of Rhode Island for adolescent girls.”
More: Family Court judge blasts DCYF for treatment of girls, warns of discrimination lawsuit
Last October, Forte told a Senate committee that Rhode Island faced a potential gender-discrimination lawsuit because it had ignored for years the crisis of inadequate residential treatment for girls in its care.
Currently, Rhode Island has about 60 adolescents being treated out of state for a variety of traumatic, behavioral or mental health needs. Of those, 45 are girls, state Child Advocate Jennifer Griffith said at a House Finance Committee hearing this week.
Most recently, said Griffith, the state Department of Children Youth and Families sent three girls to New Hampshire and two girls to Florida for residential treatment services – at a cost of $1,000 a day – because there were no local beds available.
At the House Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, Brian Daniels, head of the state’s Office of Management and Budget, fielded questions from a couple of lawmakers who wanted more information on the status of the project.
Daniels said an ongoing workshop among various agencies had resulted in a consultant's draft report with some proposals – “with the hope of a final recommendation going forward.”
“We are developing options that may get fleshed out more in the next few weeks in the budget conversations,” he said.
When House Minority Leader Blake Filippi asked if the committee should expect another amendment before the budget is finalized, Daniels replied: “Not that I’m aware of ... there is still some work that needs to be done.”
According to Forte and Griffith, the draft consultant’s report put the price tag for building a residential treatment center at about $64 million – a figure they described as “astronomical.”
In February, Griffith led a small group of lawmakers on a field trip to Glenhaven Academy, a 36-bed residential treatment center in Marlboro, Massachusetts, that cost about $16.5 million to build several years ago.
Daniels said Wednesday that the size of any center could be problematic; too big and the federal government might consider it an institutional setting and not reimburse the state for services.
House Minority Leader Blake Filippi replied: “It’s certainly better than shipping kids out of state, I think we can agree. ... If we don’t fix this, what the hell are we doing here?”
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi supports “the necessary in-state services for these girls in the short term, as well as providing for the longer-term capacity needs such as envisioned with establishing a new facility,” said his spokesman Larry Berman, adding the Speaker also wants to ensure that federal reimbursement “is maximized.”
On Friday, Griffith, the child advocate said, “if other states like Massachusetts can figure that out, we should be able to figure that out.“
The need is dire, Griffith said: “If the building appeared today, I would have the place filled by dinner. We have the money this year ... we just have to get moving. What else is needed to motivate the decision-makers to start digging?”
Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI has committed no money to residential treatment center for girls
