CHILDREN IN STATE CARE: ENSURING THEIR
PROTECTION AND SUPPORT
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SELECT COMMITTEE ON
CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NINETY-NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND EDITION
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, SEPTEMBER 25, 1986
9
STATEMENT OF PATRICIA HANGES, VOLUNTEER YOUTH
ADVOCATE, FRANCIS HOUSE, BALTIMORE, MD.
Ms. HANGES. You have to be getting short-circuited by now, after
hearing all these stories.
I think probably I totally agree, and have seen everything these
people have talked about. I think my testimony is a little different
in that I am totally a volunteer. I accept no money at all for what I
do.
I believe in these children, and I believe there is hope. I don't
want you people, after you hear all these things, to think that
there isn't hope, because just in the last 3 years I have seen,
through a lot of advocacy efforts in the State of Maryland, individ-
ual children that have been saved by people getting involved.
I think that is kind of what this country is all about -- not big
Federal grants, and not big State money, because, I am sorry,
coming from where I come from, these are God's children. I don't
think the State has any business even putting their hands on them.
My name is Pat Hanges; I am a Franciscan lay volunteer. I am
currently assigned to a juvenile institution in the State of Mary-
land, that is typical of what these three beautiful people have de-
scribed. I work in the capacity of advocate for the children.
I go out and I give approximately15 speeches a month raising
money to improve the childrens conditions in this institution and
to educate the community.
Prior to joining the Franciscan lay community -- so you decide
whether you think I have the credibility to speak or not -- I was a
police major. We set up a very, I think, a good youth division in
Baltimore County Police Department.
The prime purpose of our youth division, it was very non-tradi-
tional in the field of policing, it was not just to arrest kids, but to
keep them out of the juvenile justice system -- because I feel once a
child or a family gets meshed in this system, they never come out
the same, and they never come out the better for it.
We had to overcome a lot of problems in setting up this unit. The
reason I am so hopeful, in Baltimore County in the State of Mary-
land, we were able to educate the community and to keep kids out
of places like Montrose and other State facilities.
So when many bureaucrats say, oh, the community wants these
kids locked up; I don't really believe that is true. I think the com-
munity has not been educated to keeping these kids in community
based programs.
If they knew that it will cost $42,000 to warehouse a kid that
could be treated so much better in the community, for one-eighth
of that money, I think the community, even the ones that don't
like children -- and a lot of people in America don't, I am convinced
of that -- even they care what it costs to lock kids up, care about
their money. I think if the bureaucrats would only wise up and
start telling people what it costs, that maybe they might be doing
it for the wrong reason, but they would do it.
97
The amount of Federal money that is wasted in some of these
grants really gets to me, too, but that is another story I will come
back with at another time.
What I would like to share with you today are my personal expe-
riences working daily in the cottages, directly with the children
that are incarcerated at Montrose. I really hope I can effectively
convey to you -- because I almost didn't come here today, I much
rather work with the children than talk -- I would like to convey to
you their story. It is a story of hopelessness; and it is a story of
pain.
But most of all it is a plea for your help to make the States
straighten out the way they are treating these children. For in
spite of all they have been through, and in spite of all we have
done to these kids, they are probably the most beautiful children
that I will ever be privileged to work with.
I am sorry, I cry every time I talk about them, and I am sup-
posed to be a tough ex-cop.
They all respond to genuine love, everyone of them. I have been
there 3 1/2 years and I have worked with hundreds of children, and
everyone of them responds to love, that is universal.
They don't deserve that kind of institution, and particularly for
the two kids that have died by hanging within the last three years,
they are children that have been robbed of their childhood.
I want to tell you all something; they are my heart. I will keep
working with them as long as the Lord leaves me here on Earth.
I want to tell you that I am overwhelmed by their needs, con-
stantly frustrated by a seemingly unmovable bureaucratic system.
A system that is not only costly in money, but in opinion, rips fam-
ilies apart.
It shreds them of their very basic American rights to be treated
with love and with dignity. And every child born in the United
States should have that stamped on their birth certificate.
Our laws state in Maryland, that we are to treat these children
in the least restrictive environment and still protect the communi-
ty. Yet we lock up hundreds of children in Maryland every year,
unnecessarily.
Reports have been made, since I came to Montrose and they have
been made public, enough reports to wallpaper the walls of this
place. And maybe we should, because maybe somebody would read
them; I don't think anybody has read them yet.
All of these reports say the same thing: A lot of these kids don't
have to be locked up; it is not cost-effective; we should be looking
into closing these large institutions, those not dangerous or making
them therapeutic models and we are not doing it. We haven't even
began to do it.
I was sent to Montrose 3 years ago under the authority of a State
grant written to study institutional abuses. I think the grant was
very poorly written. It came under the Department of Human Re-
sources, and they had a very hard time recruiting volunteers.
I can understand why after being in the institution almost 4
years. I was the only one who stayed -- and I think if it hadn't been
for my police background, I probably would have walked out the
door after the first week.
98
I quite honestly must say, though, that the superintendent of the
school gave me a wide latitude. He let me go anyplace I wanted to
go and never tried to hide anything from me. Of course, as a result
of all of the things that I found out, the poor guy moved into an-
other position; I always felt a little twinge of guilt about that as he
was a good man given nothing to work with.
When I arrived at Montrose, evidence of neglect were every-
where. They were overcrowded, understaffed -- the same thing you
have heard over, and over again, and you will hear it 100 more
times -- badly in need of repair. It seemed to me, that virtually ev-
erybody in the institution had just given up. They had been ne-
glected in the budget process for years.
Let me describe for you my first assignment at Sanford Cot-
tage -- I am now in a cottage with the real little ones -- but these
boys are 13, 14, and 15. Sanford needed everything, staff, furniture,
recreational equipment; it had nothing. The only thing Sanford had
was a super-abundance of kids.
Each crowded little cell was filled with two children. Many of the
mattresses smelled of urine, because a lot of these children are bed-
wetters and then they become even more frequent bedwetters after
they are locked in those kinds of places.
They all had two badly-in-need-of-repair beds in one little cell.
Overcrowding escalated after the Department of Juvenile Services
froze the purchase of care money, to pay off some kind of deficit. I
never found out what the deficit was, but I knew children were
being deprived of placements, and they were just languishing in
the institutions.
Conditions in Sanford, and throughout the institution -- and re-
member, I was in here every day, so nobody can tell me this didn't
exist, I saw it with my own eyes -- became what I consider inhu-
mane. After many complaints to the people in charge -- because
now I am Franciscan and not a cop, I am supposed to be a little
gentler--so it took me a long time to try to work through these
levels of bureaucracy; nothing was done.
In fact, the problem escalated, children were sleeping on mat-
tresses in halls, mattresses in the gymnasium. These are troubled
kids; these are not hard-core delinquents at Montrose, I want to
make that clear.
The report I sent you bears up what I am saying; I am not some
bleeding heart; it is in that report.
Six children were crammed into a small area in Sanford cottage;
in addition to all this crowding, the air in there was so stale and so
horrible. The boys were coming to me reporting sexual abuse, and
alleged sexual advances were increasing. Along with attempted sui-
cides.
I also went to social services -- after I went through all the levels
of bureaucracy and tried to move everybody gently as I could -- I
went to social services and asked that a neglect report be made
against the State of Maryland, because when I was a cop, if parents
treated their kids the way our State treated those kids, I would
have locked their butts up.
And yet, the State of Maryland, which is a wealthy State, was
treating our children in this manner, and under the guise that we
99
were protecting them. Well, if that is protection, buddy, I hope
they never protect me like that.
Everyone was sympathetic, and they would say, oh, yes, sure,
right, that is horrible; but nothing was done. In desperation I went
to our legislatures in Annapolis; and I went to our Lieutenant Gov-
ernor; and, finally, I went to the news media and we got a little
action.
All the children were locked in their cottages. When I first came
into Sanford, I observed children punished by putting them in their
cells, what staff would call early bed, in some cases as early as 6:30
at night. If you are emotionally disturbed and you are in one of
those rooms all that time, you are going to go berserk; and they
did.
When the children became frustrated and acted out, as they call
it, they were sent to isolation, for very minor offenses.
Early beds are no longer allowed; but that is difficult to enforce.
Unless you have someone, like myself, that is not an employee,
that doesn't have any allegiance to the State, that is just going in
there for the kids, to watch it, they can still put those kids in those
rooms.
I observed staff ratio of 2 to 38. If you read that report, and find
out what kind of kids we have got at Montrose, we have got sick
kids there. Two staff people, that only need a GED -- our State low-
ered the standard for child-care workers a few years ago, when it
should have raised it, it lowered it. We have had two staff to 38
kids, and because of low morale, and call-in, sometimes 1 to 38; and
no one, no one, can handle that. We do have some good staff.
The noise levels in those cottages are deafening. It is at those
times I am glad that I live in a community. I can go home and
there is no noise.
It is difficult to recruit good people; and you can understand
why. For these key position all that is required, like I said, is a
GED. We need trained child-care workers, but we are not getting
them. At least 1-to-10 staff ratio.
Whether they were intentional or not, everything was done to
break the spirit of these children. Some examples, they are told
when they can come out their rooms to go to the bathroom. Not
allowed to speak when they eat.
On many occasions I have seen staff -- and, of course, if I was
dealing with 30 to 38 kids for an 8-hour period, I guess I don't
know what I would do, so I try not to be too judgmental -- but
making children stand there for long periods of time when the kid
was hopping because he had to go to the bathroom.
Also, the staff would call "sit down" and "stand up." I said, what
in the heck does that mean; sit down, stand up, when they were
going to the bathroom? It simply meant they even controlled that.
The child was told when he could sit down and go to the bath-
room -- I work with all boys. I filed complaints on that; that proce-
dure is no longer allowed, and I don't observe it being done.
Absolutely no privacy. The children are made to ask for their
toilet paper -- if you can imagine being 11 and 12, and 13 and going
through this. Toothpaste is put on their toothbrushes; they can't
control that. They can't control any aspect of their life in the insti-
tution -- remember these are not hard-core delinquents.
100
Children were not allowed at this time to call home. Since then, I
have filed a complaint. They are allowed to call home now. This is
an important thing because many of these children don't get visi-
tors and that call home means a lot. There is constant verbal abuse
and intimidation by some staff, already testified to.
Some of these dehumanizing procedures have been stopped, but
they have only been stopped because there were advocates that
went into that institution and stayed and filed complaints and
spoke out for children that cannot speak out for themselves. News
media coverage really helped.
Another problem area identified, and I had great difficulty with,
is an area they called a cottage but it was simply old rooms over
the administration building. They had approximately 30 children
crammed in there.
The only reason that it closed was 1 day a staff tried to restrain
a child and seriously dislocated his shoulder. The child went with-
out adequate medical treatment for a couple of days.
When the mother arrived on visiting day, he complained of in-
tense pain. They took him to the hospital and he had to have a
very serious operation on his shoulder, because of the neglect Gard-
ner Cottage was closed.
When I went to Williams Cottage the youngsters complained re-
peatedly of a "pink room." I just thought it was a room that was
painted pink -- Ms. Guttridge's boy died in that room. This was a
year after her boy died, he was 12 -- 13.
One of the little boys I was taking home with me started to cry
and said, Ms. Pat, don't take me back, they put me in the pink
room; and I see that little boy's ghost.
I said, what in the heck is the "pink room"? I moved over to Wil-
liams Cottage and found out what it was.
It was a room where, even after a child had hung himself, could
not possibly be supervised, all the way down the end of the hall,
smelled of urine and feces so bad that I had to hold my breath
when I went into it, in the summer months.
The institution was still putting children in this room. This was
a year after the other child had died.
After many complaints, we did get that room stopped from being
used as a detention room. But I feel if I hadn't gone there, they
would still use that room. Because they did not think it was wrong.
You see, the whole philosophy of institutions is control and pun-
ishment; it is not rehabilitation.
Also, it should be noted that Ms. Guttridge wanted her son. She
visited him every week. She constantly called -- that is the lady you
are going to hear from next -- she tried to help out in the institu-
tion by bringing other things for children that never got visitors.
The point I want to make is we could spend approximately
$40,000-some to put her child in that institution, he was not a hard-
core delinquent. He could have been treated in the community for
a fraction of that cost, because we have a mother here to think she
was going to get help, and had she known what she was letting her
son go into, he would never have gone in there.
We had a second child -- and I carry his picture with me all the
time, every time I get discouraged because I am broke and have no
money, and I wonder how I am going to make it through another
101
day, I look at Troy Chapman -- Troy was 13 years old, and he died
this year.
His twin brother was also in Montrose. He was in the cottage
next to ours and he also tried to commit suicide. This mother also
visited and ed for help, but didn't get any.
I talked to Troy almost daily while he was at Montrose, he was
one of the boys in our cottage. He was very unhappy, and he was
sent to isolation almost every day he was there. He was 13 years
old, and never had a happy day.
He would say, Ms. Pat, please get me help, I know I am sick, I
know I need help, I know they keep telling me I am bad, but I need
help. Troy never got that help.
A counselor and I took him to a regional institute -- which gets
three times the money Montrose gets, another State facility, alleg-
edly set up to help these children who have these kind of prob-
lems -- they turned Troy down. They said he was not acceptable for
their program.
And, of course, Montrose has to take anybody, so he came back
to us. The day he was killed, I was sitting in the counselor's office
waiting for Troy to come home from school -- I call it home, back to
us from the school -- and he never came back.
He sssaulted a teacher; he went to isolation. He said, if you put
me in that cell I will hang myself.
They put him in the cell -- and in the cell were screens that the
staff and I had asked them to take off for about 6 months -- and he
looped a noose through that screen, and at 13 years old he hung in
that isolation cell with people all around, but he didn't get any
help, till it was too late.
Before Troy Chapman died I held him in my arms at the hospi-
tal. I was there with his mother when they took the support system
off of him.
I want to tell you something; he didn't have to die.
We spent approximately $60,000 in the State of Maryland to in-
carcerate Troy and his brother for about a 6-month period, and we
couldn't begin to work with that mother, who was a single parent,
and she did not have a lot of money. As a result, Troy is dead.
Even after Troy's death, several incidents occurred that im-
pressed upon me the need for monitoring these institutions, and
maybe at a Federal level, as the first speaker said.
A 13 year old was sent to our cottage from a mental health facili-
ty. Now why a mental health facility would send a kid to us
anyhow, is unbelievable, but let me tell you what happened.
It was obvious to me -- and I am only a lay person -- this child was
extremely emotionally disturbed. Repeated attempts were made to
get help for this 13-year-old boy, and we couldn't get any help, and
Montrose couldn't handle him.
Each day he was in isolation. But on one particular day -- this
was after a child had hung himself, Troy, and her child had hung
himself, too -- we took him to isolation because it took three of us to
hold him down. He bit through his lip. He tried to bang his head
on the floor to kill himself, because he didn't want to live. He put
his arms through a bookcase and slashed up and down, both arms.
We took him over to the nurse -- the cottage manager and I, who
really cares about these kids -- and we said, don't put him in an iso-
102
lation cell. By then it was 8 o'clock -- you all don't know me, but I
am very determined, I was bound that kid was not going to go back
in that cottage -- so I said, you go one way, I will go the other way,
we are going to call every politician and every lawyer we know, we
are getting that kid out of here tonight.
The last thing I said and the cottage manager -- after two boys
had killed themselves, bear in mind -- don't put that child in an iso-
lation cell, he is suicidal -- as if they couldn't see that, but unfortu-
nately, some people don't see what we see -- we were gone no more
than 25 minutes. We pulled up on the parking lot with a court
order to get the kid out of there, and we heard this bang, bang,
bang.
We ran into the isolation unit, and here was this 13-year-old
child, after he had been through everything I had described to you,
holding on to the isolation cell, locked in, banging his head repeat-
edly against that window and screen until it was bloodied and
black and blue.
I wonder how long he would have beaten his head had I not
come back with a cottage manager.
Because of the University of Maryland of Law clinical people,
who went to court with that child, that child is in a mental health
facility. But I still can't help but wonder what would have hap-
pened to him.
Two months ago an 11-year-old child from our cottage was taken
to isolation. He too, said, I will kill myself.
One of our security people -- our people have little training, they
need training desperately -- said to him, go ahead, that will be one
less little boy. And we almost did have one lees little boy, because
he tried it.
I could go on. You have already heard enough out of me and ev-
erybody about what goes on in these institutions, but I think you
have to know how helpless these kids are.
I don't know if Federal -- you guys, you ladies, and gentlemen,
excuse me -- can order our State to do something. You see, I wish I
was the President of the United States, because I will tell you,
their butts would get in gear quick; but I am not.
If Montrose remains open it should be totally, programmatically
changed.
You should order the States to make these places therapeutic
models, because at least if they are therapeutic models they cannot
overcrowd them, and they cannot become what they are today. It
must be properly funded; we have never gotten the funds we need
to work with these children -- although I can tell you some stories
about how some of the money you gave us was spent it was not
done as productively as possible.
Cottage level staff positions must be upgraded, ongoing training
given -- you are going to hear this same thing over and over --
strong advocacy should be mandatory. If you are going to give our
State any money you ought to say, I am not giving you any bucks,
buddy, until you put strong advocates in those institutions.
I will tell you before you put them in, don't let just Federal grant
people -- let people like me help you write the training program, be-
cause you need guerrilla training to stay there.
103
Parental involvement, if you had parental involvement a lot of
kids would still be alive today, including her son. We have legal re-
views in the State of Maryland in that institution for these kids,
and nobody represents them, outside the system except me, and I
can't run around to 10 cottages, I would like to, but I can't.
The parents are not involved in a legal review that shapes their
kid's life for the whole time they are going to be here on earth, and
a parent is not involved in that -- I am going to file a complaint
against that next week -- but that should be mandatory.
I don't understand it, in America we were so family oriented, or
need to be more family oriented -- how we can get into these crazy
situations, where we just whip these kids out of the home, throw
them in a nuthouse like that and don't involve parents. You may
ask, as I do, how did we get into this mess?
I say everyday I get up -- I live in a community -- so I say, hey,
God, how did we get into this mess? How could this happen in the
United States we are so rich, we have it all? How can we treat kids
like this?
You know what it is, it is much easier to remove these little
characters and put them in places like Montrose and continue to
violate their rights, because they are hidden from the community.
Chairman MILLER. We are going to have to go vote and then
return for the rest of your testimony.
MS. HANGES. I hope I didn't do that to you.
Chairman MILLER. You haven't driven us from the room. I sus-
pect your testimony is going to bring most of the members back to
this room.
We will be gone about 10 minutes; we will be right back.
MS. HANGES. You want me to wait, OK. I hope it is on funding
State funds for institutions.
[Brief recess.]
Chairman MILLER. The committee will come to order.
Patricia, if you want to sum up your testimony then well go
ahead.
MS. HANGES. I was almost wrapped up when you guys had to
leave -- gentlemen and ladies, excuse me; I am so used to working
with boys.
OK, we will proceed here.
The hard/cold facts that we have had to face at Montrose is that
the majority of our kids are neglected, abused, and throwaways.
These are youngsters who no one wants.
The majority of our population are not hard-core delinquents.
They are kids, what we call -- I love the label -- CINS, Children in
Need of Supervision. There is a law in our State that says we are
not to incarcerate these kids. But how they get around that is they
violate their probation.
I had one kid that was in there 6 months, little 11-year-old, 6
months, he never had a review, didn't even know who his after-
care worker was. He was in there for not going to school and viola-
tion of probation, for 6 months.
After several reports and studies -- and we have had, as I told you
before, all kinds of studies -- the best one, Mary Anna Burt, who is
sitting behind me did -- they have been all completed, and there
have been all kinds of really good recommendations. As a result, I
104
have to say, I have to give it, we are really trying harder than I
have ever seen try at Montrose, or in the State of Maryland.
The challenge now is to develop models where these broken,
little, wounded people -- and that is what they are -- and I just wish
you could see them and hug them -- see, then you would really go to
bat for them, that is what it takes. They can become loving, well-
adjusted adults, but not in a place like that.
Just to finish up; when I was praying this morning, I was trying
to think how I could explain to you the mixture of children. In
many instances we care for kids that nobody else wants to care for
at Montrose; and we don't care for them very well.
But if somebody else cared, they would not be in my face. If
somebody was willing to have them in homes, they would be in
homes. If Aunt Jane would come and take them out of our institu-
tion tomorrow, we could give them to Aunt Jane. But there aren't
any Aunt Janes to take our kids, the majority -- this was an excep-
tion.
If we had to develop therapeutic homes, they would be in them,
but we haven't. And if they hadn't messed up in a couple of foster
homes, because they were so badly wounded the foster parents
didn't know how to handle them, we wouldn't have them. These
kids don't come easy to care for. So let's take a look at caring.
The fact is these kids are pretty broken. We have just got to put
them together.
Troy Chapman -- the one that died -- this is his picture. I would
like you to see their faces, because they are not statistics, they are
little human beings.
When I came back to the cottage that night to make sure all the
other boys and staff were OK -- because we have had two suicides
in that cottage already, and our kids are only 11, 12, and 13 in
there, some of them, 9 -- one little boy walked up to me
tears streaming down his face, and he said, Ms. Pat, why did Troy
have to die? I said, because he was just too wounded to be fixed
here on earth. And that is how these kids are. We have just got to
pay to get their wounds fixed.
I certainly thank you for having the patience to listen to me. I
am sure that is a trial in itself, because I am a bit overbearing at
times.
But please, please pay attention to what I say, because I don't
have any axe to grind. I turned down jobs with the State because I
consider it immoral the way we handle children.
I don't want a paid job. I enjoy working for my boss. So what I
say is I just want to help these kids.
I thank you.
Chairman MILLER. Thank you very much, for your testimony
here, and obviously for all of your work with the children.
Judy, thank you for coming this morning to talk with us. Obvi-
ously it has been difficult for you to sit through a lot of this testi-
mony, because a lot of it points right to the very tragic problem
that you encountered with your own family. But we really appreci-
ate you making this effort.
So, to the extent that you can, you relax, and just proceed as you
are most comfortable.
[A prepared statement by Patricia Hanges was also submitted]