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The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) on Monday ordered an emergency removal of all children remaining at the Delaware County reformatory school for boys, but the move should not affect Luzerne County.
That’s because the county previously had one juvenile placed at Glen Mills Schools near Philadelphia, but a county judge ordered a relocation last month due to media coverage raising concerns about the facility, county officials said Monday.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has published a series of reports about alleged violence at the facility, saying Glen Mills workers “routinely punched, choked and kicked the boys in their care, even breaking their bones, then kept them quiet with threats.”
According to the DHS release:
As of Monday, there were 64 students from 21 Pennsylvania counties at the school and 43 from eight other states.
The state agency will work with counties, states and judicial systems who have children placed at the facility to safely remove and relocate them “as quickly as possible.”
Agency staffers also will “maintain a presence” at the school during the removal process.
No new admissions may occur under the order.
DHS Secretary Teresa Miller said said the order was necessary to ensure no children are at risk of physical and emotional harm as its investigation of allegations continues.
“This removal is one step of an ongoing process, and DHS is committed to seeing this investigation through to ensure that any individual responsible for endangering the welfare of children and coercing silence can be held responsible,” Miller said.
She encouraged any former students, their family and Glen Mills staff to “share their story” through Pennsylvania’s ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313.
Luzerne County Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said she has not received any complaints about the facility since she was hired to oversee the county’s law division in July 2016.
The county did not have immediate records of the number of children who had been placed at Glen Mills in recent years but was in the process of gathering invoices, she said.
County Court Administrator Michael Shucosky said children can end up in outside placement two ways: through Children and Youth or the criminal justice system.
Children and Youth recommends placement for “dependent” children who are neglected and/or abused, while the criminal justice system processes those for “delinquent” youth who have committed criminal offenses, he said. Sometimes children fall in both groups.
The child who was housed at Glen Mills last month stemmed from a dependency case, he said.
In either scenario, a county judge must approve an outside placement and can only send youth to a facility with a contract approved by the county administration.
Crocamo said the administration was not asked to initiate a contract termination with Glen Mills, although she said both the administration and county judiciary had been monitoring the media allegations.
Glen Mills must be paid around $146 per day for county youth housed there, according to the county’s contract.
Shucosky noted the outside placement of delinquent juveniles has “plummeted” in the county in recent years, largely due to increased support for diversionary programs that involve counseling and in-home monitoring.