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HEADLINE: UNLICENSED AND UNREGULATED
PUBLISHED:
February 12, 1987, Thursday Page A-18 (9 in.)
SECTION: OPINION
TYPE:
EDITORIAL
TEXT:
If your child were hooked on crack or perpetually stoned on
marijuana, you might do anything to get help. You might even put him or her in
an unlicensed, unregulated drug-treatment program where "excessive force" may be
used against "rebellious" youngsters. A place like KIDS of Bergen County, a
private program that specializes in straightening out teen-agers with
substance-abuse and behavioral problems.
Bergen County Prosecutor Larry
McClure recently concluded a nine-month investigation of KIDS and, its director,
Miller Newton. He said he found evidence that excessive force might have
been used against some clients, but not enough evidence to substantiate criminal
charges of abuse. Some teen-agers in the program said they were beaten, pinned
down beneath counselors and fellow clients, and isolated in small rooms for days
or weeks at a time.
Allegations like these are not new to Miller Newton, who
ran a similar program called Straight in Florida, which also became the subject
of investigations by local prosecutors and child-welfare agencies. No charges
were filed, but he and his program subordinates were warned repeatedly by
Florida officials to stop holding youngsters against their will and to monitor
their "peer counselors" more closely to prevent violence against the clients.
New Jersey doesn't bother to license programs like KIDS because they are
considered "nonresidential" (as opposed to treatment in a hospital) and because
they don't dispense medication. In the KIDS program, however, youngsters are
immediately taken away from their own families and placed in the homes of other
clients who are further along in the program.
These are called "host homes,"
but to all intents and purposes they are foster homes. Unlicensed, unregulated
foster homes.
Programs like this are mushrooming across the state. It�s an
uncopscionable failure on the state government's part that they are able to
operate
without any kind of regulation to protect the young clients
undergoing treatment. Indeed, Mr. Newton says he has tried unsuccessfully to
obtain a license for KIDS.
No one can regulate compassion into a program
that at times chooses to cross the boundaries of common decency. But licensing
and regular inspections would provide a needed measure of scrutiny. We shouldn't
wait until a youngster is seriously hurt before we act to license adolescent
drug treatment programs.
<END>
TERMS: NEW JERSEY. FLORIDA. DRUG.
YOUTH. COUNSELING. ABUSE. PROBE. LICENSE. REGULATION. CHILD. BERGEN COUNTY. HOME
ORDER NUMBER: 1531006
NOTICE: Copyright 1987 Bergen Record Corp.
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