Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Three Springs

SEQUEL YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES acquires THREE SPRINGS

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Che Gookin:
Yeah saw that article last night, confirmed everything I already know. Not sure what this means for Three Springs though. Given the roots of Sequel being in the private teen prison business it stands to reason that the TS lockdown facilities are going to be looked at over the residential schools.

Alabama alone has courtland, madison, tuskegee, and new beginnings for light to heavy security lockdowns. Florida has Daytona and a couple others, I think.

Ursus:
Regarding SYFS Co-founder and Chairman Jay Ripley's prior employment, specifically:

Supervisor/Manager
Ernst & Young
(Partnership; 10,001 or more employees; EY; Accounting industry)
1979 — 1985 (6 years)[/list]

Ernst & Young is one of the top seven Lobbying Firms based on income over the past dozen years, raking in just over $143 million for that time period:



Their top client in 2009 was ... Accounting firm Ernst & Young, paying themselves $1,784,201. Funny how that works, sometimes.

Heavy Hitters
Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is one of the world's largest accounting firms, offering its clients everything from auditing services to tax advice. Over the years, the firm has successfully led efforts to block increased federal oversight of the accounting industry. Yet the collapse of Enron and the corporate scandals that followed have largely put the company on the defensive. In 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ernst & Young, accusing the firm of violating ethics rules when it was the chief auditor of one of its key business partners, PeopleSoft. At the same time, federal investigators launched efforts to crack down on companies that avoid taxes by incorporating in Bermuda or other offshore tax havens—a practice that has generated plenty of revenue for Ernst & Young over the years.[/list]


Copyright © 2009 Center for Responsive Politics

Ursus:
This person has apparently been working at Three Springs (Mountain Home, ID) since the Summer of 2007. Looks like it'll be binnis as usual, despite the acquisition by Sequel Youth and Family Services...

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A New Job!!!

I have been keeping a secret. Some of you knew something was up. I called and asked to use people as referrences. I even called asking for an address I lived at for two months. Many many details were needed. It is complete. It is official.

Starting TODAY I am working as a Special Eduation Teacher for Sequel Youth and Family Services. That's right as of today. If you follow the link you may notice Sequel seems very similar to Three Springs.

That is indeed the case. Similar, but not identical. Sequel acquired Three Springs facilities and employees. Although I am now a Sequel Employee I still work at Three Springs...for now anyway.

Posted by AlwaysMee at 4:58 PM
Labels: life, work

Ursus:
Sequel Youth and Family Services owns some facilities, and has management contracts with other facilities. As noted above on their Company History page, their (formerly) five residential programs are actually owned by other organizations. Three Springs would appear to be their first residential program owned outright.

SequelCare, their Community-Based Services (CBS) division has three locations (Iowa, Florida, Arizona), all of which they own. At least the latter two were previous "community-based" programs: Gift of Life in Pinellas Park, Florida, purchased in 2007; and DayBreak Behavioral Resources based in Prescott, Arizona, purchased in 2008.

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Residential Programs managed by Sequel Youth and Family Services:

Clarinda Academy · http://www.clarindaacademy.org
Clarinda Academy was established 1992 as a residential foster care facility for at-risk and adjudicated delinquent males between the ages of 12 and 18. Over the years, Clarinda has expanded its continuum of services and currently offers long-term residential treatment for males and females, 90-day impact programming, shelter care, and transitional living services. With a licensed capacity of 259 students, Clarinda Academy serves youth from several different states.  The Clarinda Academy environment focuses on behavioral change through the establishment of a positive peer culture and the intervention of negative behavior.

Mingus Mountain Academy · http://www.mmaaz.com
Mingus Mountain Academy was founded in January 1985 to help young girls from Arizona who had special emotional needs. It now attracts girls from across the nation. Mingus proudly earned Joint Commission accreditation and also North Central school accreditation. A highly qualified staff of professionals provides medical, clinical, educational and recreational services. In 2004, Mingus Mountain Academy became part of the Sequel Youth and Family Services organization.  

Normative Services Prep · http://www.normativeservices.com
Normative Services was founded in 1991 in Sheridan, Wyoming as a small residential treatment program for adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems. As additional programs were developed and the school's reputation grew, other jurisdictions throughout Wyoming took notice of a successful concept: "troubled adolescents" were taking significant responsibility for their own treatment programs. Referring agencies saw the positive results of the norms-based approach, and student population increased. The result was growth and the need for expansion to the fully developed campus on the present site some three miles west of Sheridan. Demand for Normative's services has continued to increase. Our belief in our students’ abilities, potential, and capacity to thrive and excel in a safe and challenging environment grows stronger each year.

Woodward Academy · http://www.wwacademy.com
Woodward Academy opened on the campus of the Woodward Resource Center on July 10, 1995 with four youths in attendance. Today, Woodward Academy is a 168-bed residential facility for male youth (adjudicated delinquent or CINA -- child in need of assistance). Woodward Academy is located in Woodward, Iowa, 30 miles NW of Des Moines. Woodward Academy offers three different residential programs ranging from 90 days to 18 months, working with youth from 12 to 18 years old; each of these programs contain a chemical dependency component and complete health care services.  Woodward Academy also offers two non-residential programs, day school and community-based services. The non-residential programs serve the greater Des Moines and surrounding areas.

Lakeside Academy · http://www.lakesideacademy.net
Lakeside Academy was established by community leaders in 1907. The original facility was a farmhouse on 46 acres of land and first served nine boys who worked the grounds to learn employable agricultural skills and attended community schools. In 2007 Lakeside Academy entered into a management agreement with Sequel Youth and Family Services. Sequel Youth and Family Services began managing the facility in July 2007. Lakeside Academy offers residential treatment and sexual offender programming to male youth aged 12-18.


© Copyright 2009 Sequel Youth and Family Services, All Rights Reserved.

Ursus:
Lakeside Academy has been around the longest, but they ran into some real hard times in 2006 and had to close. My guess is that part of the deal of getting them operational again may have been the management contract with Sequel. Here is Lakeside's extremely abbreviated version of their 103-year history:

History
Lakeside for Children was established by community leaders in 1907. The original facility was a farmhouse on 46 acres of land and first served nine boys who worked the grounds to learn employable agricultural skills and attended community schools. Over the years, Lakeside grew into a 79-bed facility that served boys, girls and sexual offenders. In July, 2007, Lakeside for Children entered into a management agreement with Sequel Youth and Family Services, who began managing the facility under the name Lakeside Academy.[/list]

Just one year later, things sound hopeful:

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Kalamazoo Gazette
Kalamazoo's Lakeside Academy residents rebound from troubled past with summer basketball program
By Jeff Barr
July 17, 2008, 11:00AM


Lakeside Academy student Dylan Hancock, 16, jokes with Titan Club members Wednesday while watching the Lakeside Academy Titans basketball team cruise to a 14-point victory at The Courthouse athletic facility in Portage.
Jennifer Harnish | Kalamazoo Gazette

They were playing basketball, but they were learning so much more.

A team of former car thieves, gun-toters, drug-dealers and gang-bangers -- all under 18 and residents at Kalamazoo's Lakeside Academy -- played their third summer-league basketball game Wednesday night. And they operated as one in The Courthouse athletic facility in Portage, employing a brand of teamwork and togetherness that has been carved into their personalities since living at Lakeside.

"Basketball is a tool, but it's secondary to what's really going on here," said Lakeside's coach Will Cowen, 26, shortly after watching his Lakeside Titans beat a team made up largely of Comstock High School basketball team members. "There are young athletes out here getting a second chance at life, learning lessons that somehow they missed or were unavailable to them before they came to Lakeside."

The Titans didn't miss much Wednesday night, cruising to a 72-58 victory to up their record to 2-1 in summer-league ball. Lakeside opened its season with a 20-point loss to this same team three weeks ago, so the victory was doubly sweet.

The selflessness necessary to win basketball games showed itself throughout Wednesday's contest. There were tip-passes, and forwards with contested layups giving up the ball to a teammate who could go in alone. It was a display of constant teamwork, from the time Larry Fields hit the first hoop in the steamy Portage gym to team during Wednesday's game at The Courthouse in Portage.


Lakeside Academy Coach Will Cowen speaks to his basketball team Wednesday night during a 14-point victory. Lakeside, a residential facility for youthful criminal offenders, recently reopened after closing in Oct. 2006.
Jennifer Harnish | Kalamazoo Gazette

"I messed up before I got here, I missed school, my grades dropped and I couldn't play basketball," said Shelton Coats, of Lansing, 16, who was sent to Lakeside as part of a sentence for carrying a weapon in a school zone when he was 15. "I didn't have any self-discipline at all, and that's what got me into trouble. By coming to Lakeside, and by playing basketball, I'm learning self-discipline. It takes a while, but it's coming."

Lakeside team members must earn the right to play on the team by remaining free of discipline issues at Lakeside. Another option for kids who remain out of trouble at Lakeside is the Titan Club, which filled the gym Wednesday night to root for their team.

Residents at Lakeside Academy -- funded by Lakeside for Children, a nonprofit organization, and managed by Sequel Youth and Family Services -- have plenty of time to learn self-discipline. The average stay is anywhere from six to nine months, during which time residents must pass a four-phase behavioral-adjustment program and given a recommendation by Lakeside staff to the court system from where they came.

The 88 residents comprise youthful offenders from throughout Michigan and Indiana who are deemed qualified for the program rather than be sent to a juvenile home, jail or prison. Kalamazoo offenders are rare at Lakeside because one of the most important facets of such programs is to remove troubled kids from the area in which they found trouble. There are other programs -- such as Sequel's Clarinda Academy in Indiana -- where Kalamazoo juveniles can be sent.

"Every kid here is reachable, savable, worthy of the time that is spent on them," said Michelle Gothard, 42, a youth counselor at Lakeside. "These are kids who've been told their whole lives that they are worthless, that they'll never amount to anything. Worse yet, some of them are not cared about enough to get told anything at all.

"At Lakeside, they have to work hard, have to work on themselves to get ready to go back into the world and interact in society. But they are given the tools to do it, and they know that they are worthy of being cared about."

It took care and planning for Lakeside Academy to recently re-open its doors after being closed in October 2006. Lack of funding and program shortcomings forced the closure, and the Lakeside for Children group took action. The nonprofit organization, which still owns the property, hired Sequel to manage the facility.

"It's a great program, and there are some kids coming through it who will go out there and succeed in society, without a doubt," said Cole Houser, 23, a team leader at Lakeside who formerly worked at Sequel's Clarinda facility in Indiana. "We get very specific with them about their own individual situations.

"Sometimes they try to give us general explanations, generic answers that could apply to anyone with behavioral problems. But we force them to get specific about what happened to them, how they could have acted differently, and how they will act differently in the future should a similar situation arise."

In order to qualify for Lakeside rather than be sent to a correctional facility, potential residents are first recommended by the courts, then interviewed by Lakeside Executive Director Travis Faulds and Director of Support Services Thom Lattig. If an offender seems legitimately welcome to the opportunity of turning his life around, seems willing to follow the rules and programs at Lakeside, and there is room at the academy, he then qualifies for acceptance.

Residents then begin the process of retraining themselves. Anger management, peer pressure and decision-making are all part of the process.

And, don't forget teamwork.

Contact Jeff Barr at jbarr@kalamazoogazette.com or 388-8581.


© 2009 Michigan Live LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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