This is a frightening situation in my area

Update:

S.C. has no say in youth centers: Little-known facilities hold troubled teens
By Glenn Smith
Tuesday, April 26, 2011

SUMMERVILLE -- Many residents were stunned to learn last week that a local youth treatment center was housing violent teens from outside South Carolina. How could this happen, they wondered.

The truth is: The state has almost no control of who is placed in these facilities or where they come from. In many cases, even the local police don't know who is in their backyard.

South Carolina is home to 17 of these treatment centers that house nearly 800 kids and young adults struggling with mental illness, violent behavior and other problems. Many, like Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health, are privately run facilities.

Neighbors of the Palmetto Behavioral Health complex in Summerville have expressed concerns about security at the facility, which is surrounded by a 6-foot-tall wooden fence topped with 18 inches of lattice.

State's involvement

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control licenses these centers but has virtually no say in where they are located or who they accept as clients, agency spokesman Thom Berry said.

DHEC inspectors typically visit these facilities just once every two years unless a complaint is lodged, Berry said. Even then, they are looking at things such as staffing ratios, the dispensing of medication and treatment plans. They don't control admissions or security measures. These facilities are not required to report escapes; only hospitalizations and deaths, he said...

Prior incidents

Since February 2006, Summerville police have been called to the facility 128 times. In that time, there have been 12 missing-person calls and seven reports of runaways, police Capt. Michael Donoghue said.

In October 2009, a 15-year-old from the facility was accused of savagely beating a 64-year-old woman after slipping out a side door, according to a police report.

The victim, Toni Kucish, told police she was climbing from her vehicle when the teen started hitting her, knocking her to the ground. He continued to punch her in the head and shoulders while she was down. He ran off after she screamed for help but was quickly caught by staff members from the center, the police report stated.

Staff members told police the teen had run off after asking to get a drink of water. The teen told police he was angry with staff and decided to take it out on the first person he saw, a police report stated.

Geoffrey H. Waggoner, Kucish's attorney, said his client suffered a hemorrhage six months later that caused bleeding on the brain while she was talking to someone about the incident.

"Not only did the institution fail to acknowledge the attack on Ms. Kucish nearly two years ago, from recent events, it appears that meaningful improvements in security are still lacking," he said.

The facilities

Stacey Lindbergh, Palmetto's director of business development and community relations, declined to comment on the episode or anything related to last week's escape, citing patient confidentiality restrictions. The center released a statement last week saying it is "committed to providing the best possible treatment to its patients and takes their safety and well- being very seriously."

The Summerville facility is one of three operated in South Carolina by Palmetto Behavioral Health System. Palmetto, in turn, is owned by Universal Health Services, a Fortune 500 health management company with some 200 facilities throughout the country. The parent company reported net revenues of $5.6 billion in 2010.

The Summerville facility is not the only Palmetto Behavioral Health center to have problems. In February 2004, a 21-year-old accused of robbery escaped twice in two weeks from Palmetto's North Charleston treatment center, allegedly kidnapping his children's mother during his time on the run. Two years earlier, a 16-year-old boy was accused of sexually molesting two other boys --ages 12 and 14 -- at the same facility.

It remains unclear just how many out-of-state offenders are housed at the Palmetto facilities or how long the practice has been going on....
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S.C. has no say in youth centers: Little-known facilities hold troubled teens | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment
 
My crystal ball is telling me there might soon be a change in S.C. laws requesting notification of escapes from such facilities. Takes public outcry to change the law about things like that, I'm sure.
 
Reba said:
That's fine. The facility can be more separated and secured from the neighborhood. They can also improve their notification of authorities policy.


He was convicted of rape second degree serious physical injury (DE 1107720a2aFB). That doesn't sound consensual to me.
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Fine. But the authorities and the neighboring communities are already informed.

I was referring to those who have to register as a sexual offender across the board, not this particular individual. The way the law is enforced creates huge inequities.
 
Beach girl said:
My crystal ball is telling me there might soon be a change in S.C. laws requesting notification of escapes from such facilities. Takes public outcry to change the law about things like that, I'm sure.
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Don't see it coming. Privileged communication is a legal concept that rarely, if ever, is overturned.
 
Jiro said:
I'd like a simple yes or no answer to my simple question - was Delonte Parker a gang member?
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Who know? It was nothing more than an idea pulled from thin air in an attempt to slander. But it is a great demonstration of why confidential and privileged communications are necessary. People that make assumptions like this are dangerous and incapable of logical processing of information.
 
Reba said:
Update:


S.C. has no say in youth centers: Little-known facilities hold troubled teens | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment
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:hmm: Accused? In 2 years time, there hasn't been a conviction? I'd say the legal system is moving mighty slow.

Private facilities function no differently in SC than they do anywhere else in the U.S.

Lets see: called 128 times: that would be 116 times that had nothing to do with missing persons. There are a variety of reasons that police are called to locked facilities dealing with mentally ill clients.

I personally called the police a number of times when I was working in a domestic violence safe house. None of those calls had a single thing to do with assault. I routinely call the police when dealing with probate cases...has virtually nothing to do with the client being a danger to anyone other than themselves. The police routinely call individuals from my agency in to come to the jail to evaluate inmates. Never once have I encountered an actively homicidal inmate, despite the fact that I have evaluated some people accused of violent crimes. However, I have encountered a few suicidal inmates.
 
jillio said:
Who know? It was nothing more than an idea pulled from thin air in an attempt to slander. But it is a great demonstration of why confidential and privileged communications are necessary. People that make assumptions like this are dangerous and incapable of logical processing of information.
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Just admit it ... you were wrong. No big deal ...
 
There are "ggod" people and "bad" people everywhere. That is a given, not something that is peculiar to a city, a race, a location, or a facility.

And mentally ill people are sick. This concept of them being "bad" belongs back in the 16th century.
 
jillio said:
There are "ggod" people and "bad" people everywhere. That is a given, not something that is peculiar to a city, a race, a location, or a facility.

And mentally ill people are sick. This concept of them being "bad" belongs back in the 16th century.
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So, murderers and rapists are the picture of "mental health"?
 
What exactly does that have to do with this particular case.

You are far too quick to categorize. Not everyone falls into the nice little pocket you would like for them to.:roll:

But that need to put everyone into a category that suits your purpose is no doubt why you are unable to stick to the details of this one case and keep trying to bring generalities that do not apply in any way, shape, or form into the discussion.:roll:

Like I said, mentally ill people are not "bad." They are sick. Facilities for the treatment of mental illness contain people that have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Therefore, they are sick.
 
Prisons also house people that are "sick" too. Namely, they house individuals guilty of attempted murder, assault, rape, murder, coercion, intimidation with menace and etc.

This 19 year old should have been in prison. That is just my opinion. However, because my opinion does not matter in this situation, he was able to escape and is now quite possibly a threat to innocent people. :roll:

Let's just ignore the fact he was arrested for tampering with a crime monitoring device that was recording gang activity in the area he was fleeing from too.

So this "out of thin air" argument you have brought to the table has been shot down.
 
Here we go again. I think I'll go away from this thread until the topic goes back to reasonable and intelligent and logical discussion. Blown all to hell again.:roll: Gawd I hate it when people misuse threads and derail them with innane remarks to fulfill their own agenda. Pulling claims from thin air does not support for a position make.
 
Does anyone else, other than one person, see where there is any evidence of Parker tampering with a monitoring devise that was recording gang activity? Or that there was gang activity in the area he was fleeing from? I don't see that anywhere.

What I see is "failed to complete a diversion program" meaning did not complete community control program. Then it says "tampering with a monitoring devise". A monitoring devise is the ankle bracelet that a person in a community control program has to wear...A GPS type devise. Tampering with a monitoring devise is a charge used for someone in community control that attempts to remove, or otherwise alter, their ankle bracelet. No doubt dude ran because he has altered his monitoring devise, and as soon as they ran him through the computer, they were going to check for his monitoring devise.

See how things get assumed that are completely untrue just because one person does not understand the information they are reading? Or tries to make it say what they want it to?
 
I don't see that anywhere.
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Read the links to the Washington Times and others papers that were posted. He was originally arrested in D.C. in a known and notorious gang warfare neighborhood. He was about 15 when he originally was charged for "attempted murder." Sadly, that is a common age and common crime for someone being initiated into a gang.

Doesn't *prove* anything, no, but I wouldn't make any bets on him not being a gang member, either. I would not go out on a limb and call it "completely untrue," for sure, based on information available.

Also, "device."
 
Beach girl said:
Read the links to the Washington Times and others papers that were posted. He was originally arrested in D.C. in a known and notorious gang warfare neighborhood. He was about 15 when he originally was charged for "attempted murder." Sadly, that is a common age and common crime for someone being initiated into a gang.

Doesn't *prove* anything, no, but I wouldn't make any bets on him not being a gang member, either. I would not go out on a limb and call it "completely untrue," for sure, based on information available.

Also, "device."
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He was in the area. Does not say that he was involved in gang activity, nor does it say that the monitoring deviCe was being used to record gang activity in the area.

Thank you, spelling police.:ty: I am far more concerned with the innacuracies in the perception of the information, and the assumptions being made without any evidence what so ever to support them than I am about a typo. But I will certainly double check for you in the future. If, that is, you will be more careful regarding your fallicious logic and leaps to conclusions that are not supported.
 
But I will certainly double check for you in the future.
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Thank you. As a former English teacher, I appreciate it. :lol:

Ah, I see you edited. Actually, I am NOT jumping to conclusions. I am not saying he is a gang member. But I am saying that a) there is circumstantial evidence that might suggest the possibility, and b) I would not say that anything related to his gang member status is "completely untrue," as I think you are saying in your post above. It is "unknown."
 
Beach girl said:
Thank you. As a former English teacher, I appreciate it. :lol:
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I do what I can. As an English teacher, I am certain that you also taught students how to logically and evidentially support their positions.
 
jillio said:
I do what I can. As an English teacher, I am certain that you also taught students how to logically and evidentially support their positions.
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It's the water in that area. 'Nuff said. :lol:
 
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