State regulation does not seem to be very effective in catching people like this (at least in the state of Florida). Seems a bit risky to have "many" small group homes versus "one" or "Two" larger place. A larger more centralized program would be easier to regulate and would reduce the man-power.
Ah, but having smaller places was part of the
deinstitutionalization movement. Some kids appear to do better in a more family-like environment, particularly the younger ones.
In Florida, Marianna was the breaking point (~900 kids?). That's when they brought in Oliver Keller in the late 1960s, who tried to dismantle the large brutal institutions, putting multiple smaller programs in their place.
As usual per Florida, funding was a problem. My guess is that the state became very friendly towards
private initiative in this sector, possibly even Art Barker's The Seed. Keller even partnered with a couple of juvie court judges and Louis de la Parte to create his
own such program, then called Associated Marine Institutes (AMI), now known as
AMIkids and now also substantially larger than in its early days.
Keller was also considered to be a real expert in the new-fangled methods of behavior modification. That is, doing away with the
physical brutality and coercion and substituting a "kinder, gentler" approach. Things like William Glasser's
Reality Therapy and Lloyd McCorkle's
Guided Group Interaction, the forerunner of Positive Peer Culture, for example.
