The Bad Place

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 218 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The graffiti says it all: “This is a bad place.” Why do states send children to facilities run by Sequel, after dozens of cases of abuse?

The vacant building that once housed the Riverside Academy in Wichita, Kansas, was covered in haunting graffiti: “Burn this place.” “Youth were abused here … systematically.” “This is a bad place.” The facility, run by the for-profit company Sequel Youth & Family Services, promised to help kids with behavioral problems. But state officials had cited the facility dozens of times for problems including excessive force by staff, poor supervision and neglect.

Riverside was just one residential treatment center run by Sequel. In a yearlong investigation, APM Reports found the company profited by taking in some of the most difficult-to-treat children and providing them with care from low-paid, low-skilled employees. The result has been dozens of cases of physical violence, sexual assault and improper restraints. Despite repeated scandals, many states and counties continue to send kids to Sequel for one central reason: They have little choice.

For much of its 20 year history, Sequel was able to avoid public scrutiny. But that changed recently in Oregon, when State Senator Sara Gesler began to investigate the conditions of kids the state placed under the company’s care. What she found led to Oregon demanding change and eventually severing ties with Sequel.

This is an update of an episode that originally aired on 11/21/20.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al-Etsin.
0:08.1	Chris Hagman lives in Wichita, Kansas with his two dogs. Maggie and Annie.
0:13.4	Females, they run the house.
0:15.6	He spends a lot of time with them outside in the neighborhood.
0:18.4	Yeah, we take long walks. I got boxers, so I got to wear them out.
0:22.2	One of their favorite destinations used to be a spot along the Arkansas River.
0:27.6	There was a pretty building there, pre-war, brick walls, white columns.
0:32.0	There's a beautiful city-owned golf course right outside the front steps, maybe 30 yards.
0:40.9	It was just kind of a nice place to walk.
0:46.0	You know, I've been walking by it for 10 years probably. Chris didn't know much about the building.
0:52.0	He heard it used to be a home for unwed mothers. And more recently, some kind of youth treatment center called Riverside Academy. When the Academy quietly closed a couple years ago, Chris didn't even notice,
0:58.7	but then he heard the police found people hanging out in the vacant building,
1:03.1	trashing the place, even sleeping there.
1:05.7	I don't know, call it being the nosy neighbor or what,
1:08.2	but knowing people that have kids right along that stretch of road,
1:11.4	my biggest concern was that the building had become a public safety hazard.
1:16.3	So Chris decided to take a closer look, maybe complain to the city.
1:21.6	As he walked across the overgrown lawn,
1:24.3	he noticed the spray-painted messages scrawled across the brick walls.
1:29.5	One said pray for the victims. We want justice. There was one spot that said we need to talk
1:37.2	about Riverside Academy. Chris teaches middle school and does some part-time bartending and he's
1:42.4	pretty fearless. The door to the building
	...

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