Overdoses, assault and restraints: Inside a damning report on St. Mary's Home for Children

In June, St. Mary’s Home for Children, a residential treatment center serving youth in state care, welcomed a motorcycle club onto its North Providence campus to serve “as a deterrent to human traffickers.”

The unusual arrangement moved forward without the knowledge or approval of the state Department of Children, Youth & Families, which placed the children there.

The practice ended abruptly in August – one day after the state Office of the Child Advocate raised concerns about members of “Bikers Against Child Abuse” standing guard against potential predators at a treatment center for traumatized and high-risk youth.

St. Mary’s administrators “failed to ensure that appropriate clearances and background checks were completed” before the bikers' arrival, the child advocate's office determined – a “direct violation of the privacy and confidentiality [of] minors in state care.”

This revelation is part of a 119-page report produced by the child advocate’s office after an eight-month investigation into St. Mary’s practices.

Damning report details violence, overdoses and safety concerns

The investigation began in April after a 17-year-old girl was found unconscious on the bathroom floor of a residential unit from a drug overdose. A rescue crew administered two doses of Narcan to revive her.

A three-member team of investigators from the child advocate’s office interviewed staff, residents and the parents of children in the home, and also reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and emails, as well as hours of video footage of common areas in the Fruit Hill Avenue center. Their work revealed, they said, “significant safety concerns and abusive living conditions” for the 30 or so young residents of the home.

“Concerns include but are not limited to, children being physically assaulted by other children, children being sexually assaulted by other children, children being injured in restraints,” the report states.

More: 'It's very dangerous.' State social workers say they fear for their safety. What's being done?

The report says St. Mary’s did “fire [some] staff and reported incidences to the police due to the egregious nature of staff’s behaviors,” including striking children.

The report places much of the blame on the home's administrators and the effect of staff shortages.

“Staff reported that they were admonished for bringing these concerns to the attention of administration,” the report states. “They also discussed numerous incidences when clinical and medical staff were told by St. Mary’s administration not to talk about and refrain from documenting situations that could cause trouble for St. Mary’s. A couple of examples were provided; a child who was AWOL from St. Mary’s and was sexually assaulted and a child [who] overdosed and required Narcan while on campus.”

“Based on a review of documents ... it was clear that the concerns brought to the attention of the administrative team were minimized and staff were made to feel like they were doing something wrong by advocating for children.”

Report says DCYF ignored calls about St. Mary's

The report is also critical of DCYF, noting that some workers all but ignored calls about St. Mary's coming into the agency’s child-abuse hotline.

“The lack of investigations left children in unsafe situations and many exposed to continued incidences of abuse,” the report states.

In a statement Wednesday, DCYF spokeswoman Kerri White said: “DCYF did not and does not ignore calls coming into the hotline. The OCA raised concerns about the way DCYF screened calls and coded them in the department’s case management system.” When brought to DCYF leadership’s attention, “the department immediately reviewed and adjusted” the process.

“Any calls made to the hotline that met the criteria for an abuse and neglect allegation” were properly addressed, she said.

What is St. Mary's?

St. Mary’s is the only residential psychiatric treatment center for children in Rhode Island.

A crisis of too few such psychiatric beds has for years forced the state to send adolescent girls in its care with serious mental-health problems out of state to residential treatment centers.

Last February, state officials announced a new partnership with St. Mary’s to build an $11-million, 12-bed facility on the agency’s North Providence campus for adolescent girls needing psychiatric care.

State stopped placements to St. Mary's

The DCYF's White said the department stopped all placements into St. Mary’s in May as the child advocate’s investigation was picking up speed.

The department imposed “intensive monitoring strategies,” including unannounced campus inspections and regular “corrective action discussions with senior leadership at St. Mary’s.”

The placement ban was temporarily lifted in July, White said, but because “significant issues” remain, it’s now back in place “until further notice.”

Three administrators at St. Mary's on Wednesday either did not return messages from The Journal seeking comment or declined to discuss the report’s findings.

But in a statement, Episcopal Bishop W. Nicholas Knisely, chairman of St. Mary’s board of directors, said board members learned of the issues in the child advocate’s report last month and began meeting with officials from DCYF and the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

“We immediately developed an action plan to make significant changes in St. Mary’s management, child safety procedures and protocols, and staff recruitment and training,” the bishop said.

Later Wednesday, the board’s executive committee was meeting and some personnel changes at the home were expected to be announced afterwards, a spokeswoman for the Episcopal diocese said.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Child Advocate releases report of horrors at St. Mary's Home for Children.