The following is reproduced without permission from the
The Arizona Republic
July 9, 1998
California report rips DES over safety
Agency blasted for not protecting children at Boys Ranch
By Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
July 9, 1998
California investigators delivered a brutal indictment of the Arizona Department of Economic Security for failing to protect children at Arizona Boys Ranch, where a Sacramento teenager died in March.
"The Arizona DES provides inadequate oversight to allow for the safety of children at ABR," concluded a California Department of Social Services team that investigated abuse allegations. "DES does not effectively enforce licensing regulations at ABR."
While Social Services investigators blamed Boys Ranch for the death of 16-year-old Nicholaus Contreraz, they also concluded that DES continually let the ranch off the hook despite confirmed cases of abuse.
Linda Blessing, director of DES, did not respond to an interview request.
Department spokeswoman Sally Ordini said, "They haven't had the courtesy of sending us their report. . . . We are glad California is finally beginning to take responsibility for the children they've been sending to our state all these years."
More than half of the estimated 400 remaining delinquents at Boys Ranch are California imports. However, the Department of Social Services announced Tuesday that it no longer would pay for placements in the seven-campus system, or for 223 California youth already in Arizona.
Boys Ranch President Bob Thomas said the latest "so-called investigation" was based primarily on statements from boot camp rookies who "will tell you anything you want to hear." He also said he believes California investigators were biased.
A criminal investigation of Contreraz's death is still under way, along with a review by DES. The youth collapsed from a lung ailment in March after weeks of punishment at the Boys Ranch's orientation camp in Oracle.
Thomas has acknowledged that Contreraz was misdiagnosed by medical staff and mistreated by employees, while claiming it was an isolated incident. Boys Ranch, a $26 million non-profit corporation, closed the Oracle boot camp, fired several workers and promised a series of reforms.
Asked how the ranch can survive California's funding cut-off, Thomas said, "That remains to be seen. Certainly, if you remove 200 and some kids, it's going to have an impact."
California investigators concluded that Boys Ranch administrators "knew or should have known about the abuse and neglect, and failed to prevent or stop it."
But they also condemned both branches of DES -- Child Protective Services and Facilities Licensing -- for compromising the safety of children during 11 years of child abuse incidents and license violations.
Among their criticisms:
Boys Ranch employees who were accused of abuse were allowed to continue working with youth during investigations.
DES agreed to procedures for Boys Ranch that violate child-abuse reporting statutes.
DES accepted guidelines that prevented the investigators from getting documents necessary to monitor Boys Ranch.
CPS investigators were not required to inform a youth's probation officer of abuse allegations, or the results of investigations.
Arizona law does not authorize financial penalties for violating DES regulations. As a result, regulators have no power over juvenile agencies except the drastic option of shutting them down.
Although Boys Ranch's license expired early this month, DES recently granted an extension pending a review of Contreraz's death and at least 25 other abuse allegations.
The California report chronicles a tangled history of scandals at Boys Ranch, involving boys who reportedly were kicked, punched, choked and subjected to other cruelty since 1987. In two major cases, the report notes, multiple claims were substantiated by Arizona investigators.
Boys Ranch, a Queen Creek-based organization with campuses statewide, was given warnings and provisional licenses after those probes. Yet California investigators found that DES failed to impose reforms or verify them.
DES also bowed to Boys Ranch in a series of regulatory disputes, according to the California report. In 1995, for instance, DES authorities agreed to provide 48 hours' notice before inspecting ranch campuses, and to provide ranch officials with tape-recordings of interviews with juvenile residents.
DES renewed Boys Ranch's license in 1996 over the objections of some CPS employees. A year later, the agency cut another deal allowing a Boys Ranch lawyer to determine what "unusual incidents" would be listed on reporting charts, and authorizing ranch officials to withhold 90 percent of the files.
Although that agreement "allowed ABR to be selective in what it reported to DES," the California report notes, more violations were uncovered last year -- and Arizona once again renewed the Boys Ranch license.
Ordini complained that California investigators reached their conclusions without ever speaking with Blessing or other DES administrators. She called some of their findings "flat-out false," but declined to respond to them in detail.
In the meantime, Ordini said, DES is conducting a fair and thorough probe of Boys Ranch.
"She (Blessing) is not intimidated or influenced by anyone," she added.
Along with the DES critique, California investigators concluded that:
Contreraz's death was caused by "the combination of medical neglect and abusive treatment" that was "openly conducted and permitted."
Physical and psychological abuse were "endemic" at the Oracle campus.
Staff at Oracle were not adequately trained or supervised.
Employees did not know mandatory reporting laws on child abuse, and the Boys Ranch environment discouraged such reporting.
***
Dennis Wagner can be reached at 444-8874 or at [email protected] via e-mail.
Copyright 1998 The Arizona Republic
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RadViews
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