RUTLAND – An attorney for the state told a federal judge Tuesday changes are happening after a preliminary injunction was issued this summer ripping the physical restraint, seclusion and isolation practices at Vermont’s only juvenile detention facility.
Those changes include a roughly $260,000 renovation of a unit that had been used to isolate youth, turning it into a “therapeutic” space, as well as recruiting a “clinician” to take the helm of the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center.
However, the lawyer for the organization who brought the legal action leading to the injunction responded that until those new policies are adopted, and are in practice, he still has questions whether the state will adhere to them at the facility.
“Woodside has a cultural problem that has manifested itself in very unsafe use of force, lots of isolation, and unnecessary seclusion,” AJ Ruben, supervising attorney at Disability Rights Vermont, said to Judge Geoffrey Crawford.
Ruben added during the hearing Tuesday in federal court in Rutland that his organization has heard such pledges from officials with the state Department for Families and Children in the past, only to have them change their minds.
“We’re optimistic,” he said. “And yet, really nothing has changed. We’re told they’ve changed their practices, but there’s nothing on paper so that we can hold them accountable.”
Ruben added that the facility, which can house up to 30 youth, only has three youth there currently. He questioned what would happen if the number of youth at the facility started to increase.
The 30-bed Woodside facility is for youths ages 10 to 18, and had in the past typically been housing six to 16 youths at one time.
Assistant Vermont Attorney General David McLean, representing DCF during the hearing Tuesday, said the state is committed to “significant institutional” reforms at Woodside.
Also, according to a filing by McLean, the organizational structure at Woodside will be among the changes.
“As soon as possible, DCF will be recruiting a clinician to take the helm of the institution,” McLean wrote, adding that specific credentials needed for the positions haven’t yet been determined.
“In any event,” the attorney wrote, “the clinician will be responsible for, and have ultimate authority over, all decisions regarding the provision of services and the conditions at the Woodside.”
Crawford, speaking at the end of a hearing Tuesday, gave the state until Dec. 1 to “fine tune” the policy changes and submit them in their “final form” to the court for approval.
He also gave Disability Rights Vermont until that same date to outline any remaining issues that still need to be addressed at the facility.
The hearing Tuesday was the first in the case since Crawford issued his blistering preliminary injunction order against DCF regarding Woodside.
In that ruling, the judge called a video, which he reviewed as part of reaching his decision, “horrific,” and “entirely inappropriate.” It showed the restraint of a teenage girl at the facility, in which she is naked and streaked with feces.
In his order, Crawford wrote, the incident captured in that video “demonstrates in the space of a few minutes Woodside’s limited ability to care for a child who is experiencing symptoms of serious mental illness.”
Attorneys in the case said during the hearing Tuesday that they are working to determine the effect of a filing this week by the U.S. Department of Justice in the case.
In that filing, termed a “statement of interest,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Vermont highlighted the federal First Step Act.
That act, according to the filing, explicitly prohibits the isolation of children “for discipline, punishment, retaliation, or any reason other than as a temporary response to a covered juvenile’s behavior [which] poses serious and immediate risk of physical harm to any individual, including the covered juvenile.”
In addition to implementing new policies and practices, McLean, DCF’s attorney, told the judge during the hearing Tuesday that the North Unit at Woodside, which had been where youth in “isolation” were kept, has since been closed down.
Now, he said, the state is preparing to turn that unit into a “therapeutic” space for mental health counseling and family visiting.
The state Department of Buildings and General Services, McLean added, has estimated that it will cost about $260,000 for the renovation and take about 15 months to complete, a time frame he hopes can be accelerated.
During the hearing Tuesday, Monica Hutt, acting deputy secretary of the state Agency of Human Services, which oversees DCF, testified that the state is “committed” to funding that work.
In its legal action filed earlier this year seeking the injunction, Disability Rights Vermont had termed the physical restraint and seclusion policies and practices at the Woodside facility in Colchester as “dangerous” and “excessive.”
The nonprofit organization, which advocates for people with disabilities and mental health issues, sought to stop those practices at Woodside through the legal action, eventually leading to the preliminary injunction granted by Judge Crawford in August.
In its lawsuit, Disability Rights Vermont cited 11 reports issued by DCF’s Residential Licensing and Special Investigations Unit in October 2018 finding violations of state regulations at Woodside.
Those reports found instances of unnecessary use of restraints and seclusion on youth at the facility, and inadequate mental health treatment for children actively suicidal.
Meanwhile, the fate of Woodside remains an open question going forward.
Lawmakers last session discussed a proposed that would have replaced the facility at a cost of $23.3 million.
Also, last fall, the state opted to drop its two-year effort to secure federal funding to help cover the costs of running the facility, with the federal government saying the facility didn’t meet its criteria for a psychiatric residential treatment facility provider.
“DCF is committed to continuing the process of reforming Woodside and its approach to working with at-risk youth,” McLean, the DCF attorney, wrote in a filing submitted this week in the case.
“However,” he added, “the future of Woodside remains subject to legislative action.”
Hutt, the acting deputy AHS secretary, testified Tuesday that the state is taking steps to prevent an incident such as the one that happened to the girl in the video.
In that case, Hutt said, the girl had been returned to Woodside after she was denied care at an emergency room because her actions were deemed to be behavioral rather than medical.
Hutt said the state is working now to have alternative placements ready for youth in need of higher level of care and are rejected for treatment elsewhere.
She said the case involving the girl revealed a gap in the system the state has worked to fill with partnerships with other mental health care providers.
The state has also retained the Council Of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, a national nonprofit organization working to improve juvenile correctional services and facilities.
Penny Sampson, an officials with that organization, testified Tuesday of the work she has done with the state to implement national recognized “trauma informed” practices for addressing de-escalation and restraint at Woodside.
She talked of trainings that have taken place with Woodside staff that remain ongoing.
Sampson also testified that the changes are underway to the intake and screening process to better identify youth in need of a higher level of care than can be provided at Woodside.
Judge Crawford asked Sampson if she knew why Woodside had only three youth currently at the facility.
“Where is everybody?” the judge asked her.
“That’s a good question,” Sampson replied. “I don’t know.”
