Hickey Jr. School denied yesterday claims by the state that the company
allowed conditions at the school to dangerously deteriorate and didn’t
adequately document all of its spending.
As Correctional Services Corp./Youth Services International addressed the
allegations for the first time, several key lawmakers said the state must
permanently take over Hickey – or shut it down – rather than hire another
private contractor to run the troubled juvenile detention center in Cub Hill.
“The idea that they are going to solve things by hiring a different
contractor is wishful thinking,” Sen. Brian E. Frosh, chairman of the Senate
Judicial Proceedings Committee, said in an interview.
Florida-based CSC/YSI operated Hickey under a five-year contract that ended
March 31. The state Department of Juvenile Services has been running the
juvenile detention facility since while it searches for a new operator.
Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr. said in an interview
this week that conditions were even worse at Hickey than state officials had
realized. Montague and other officials said buildings were in poor condition,
dozens of locks didn’t work and the motion sensors on the security fence were
broken.
Montague also said that “there was no budget” showing how state funds were
spent and that there were no personnel records left at Hickey.
Several officials at CSC/YSI had not returned telephone calls earlier in
the week seeking their comment. But yesterday, John Mentzer, the general
counsel for CSC/YSI, accepted a call, saying, “I don’t think there’s anything
accurate about what [state officials] said.”
Mentzer disputed Montague’s contention that there was inadequate accounting
of Hickey expenditures. “There were, in fact, budgets which were part of the
contract. We have given them every year an audited statement of expenditures
that details how the money was spent, which they are in the process of
reconciling. To say there is no budget is incredible.”
Of the locks, Mentzer said, “We have no idea what they’re talking about.”
Asked about the lack of personnel records at Hickey, he replied, “That’s
probably true; those records belong to us.”
The state says it intends to hire a new Hickey operator in the next several
months.
But Frosh said that contracting out Hickey management “is the wrong way” to
go and that “it looks to me like they have got to knock it down, although
there may be something salvageable.”
Del. Robert A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat, went further, saying
the facility “needs to be leveled.”
“The conditions are deplorable; the programs are deplorable; and you can’t
put a Band-Aid on it. You need to blow it up and start fresh with smaller
facilities,” said Zirkin, chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee on
juvenile law.
Zirkin was among the authors of a measure, signed into law this week, to
compel the state to eventually shrink or close Hickey and its other big
detention centers, which have been beset for decades by abuse, mismanagement
and a legacy of housing repeat offenders.
Other than a state commitment to take over operation of the Hickey School
in July 2007, the timetable of the biggest changes will depend largely on a
master plan to be developed during the next 21 months by the Department of
Juvenile Services.
In the meantime, it should be an open question as to whether Hickey is run
by the state or a private operator, said House Speaker Michael E. Busch.
More Top Picks Best Flashcards For Special Education
“If things continue to deteriorate, you have to look at whether the
individuals in there would be better served by a private contractor or state
management,” he said yesterday.
The department says it is making improvements at Hickey such as renovating
buildings and painting. It says a new private contractor would run Hickey for
three years. After that, the state would take over and would begin reducing
Hickey’s size consistent with the wishes of Montague and the General Assembly,
said department spokeswoman LaWanda Edwards.
Sun staff writer David Nitkin contributed to this article.