Rite of Passage had improved troubled past before riots

Four years ago, youth placed at a privately run juvenile rehabilitation center in rural Nevada lived in dilapidated housing units, suffered repeated rights violations when staff used improper restraining techniques and expressed "a pronounced sense of tension."

Inspection documents from Nevada and California obtained by the Reno Gazette-Journal revealed the Silver State Academy run by the private contractor Rite of Passage outside of Yerington was a deeply troubled facility at a time when California was slashing budgets, closing juvenile detention centers and relying heavily on out-of-state group homes to handle their delinquents.

But in the last year, with the help of revamped policies and an expensive capital improvement campaign to build two new housing units, ROP had turned the facility around, earning commendation from inspectors in the latest inspection in June.

"With all the capital improvements completed, the facility looks great inside and out," the latest inspection report from California reads. "While the youth placed there continue to be very high on the difficult to treat and manage spectrum, the lower operating capacity and census seems to contribute to a less tense and volatile environment."

The improved atmosphere, however, was short lived.

Just six months later, the first riot at the school occurred on Dec. 7 — a massive fight that local authorities described as racially motivated and prompted a wide law enforcement response. The next night, Dec. 8, a second riot occurred, resulting in the arrest of some of the juveniles at the facility.

And as ROP staff began working with local and state juvenile justice officials to improve security at the group home, a third riot broke out Saturday night. This time, youth armed with makeshift weapons, brawled, set fire to two buildings on the campus and injured two staff members.

Ten juveniles left the facility, but were found and returned by Sunday morning.

Nevada removed four youth following latest riot

The ROP's Silver State Academy is not a detention center, but it serves youth who have a long history with the juvenile justice system and are described as being among the more challenging to rehabilitate. They often have significant drug or alcohol abuse problems and gang involvement, according to documents.

The youth, aged 13 to 17, at Silver State Academy come mostly from California, where as many as eight counties have contracts with ROP to place the teenagers in the program.

Because ROP is on tribal land, it is licensed by the Yerington Paiute Tribe. But the state of California also certifies the facility as safe and adequate to provide treatment services to its clients. California and tribal inspectors visit the facility every year.

The state of Nevada also places youth at the facility, but, unlike California, it relies simply on the local licensing agency to ensure it is safe. Although Nevada officials visit the youth at ROP periodically as part of their individual case management plans, the state has no uniform certification or licensing process for such group homes, according to Chrystal Main with the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.

Over the last year, Nevada has had 25 youth in the program. The state removed four of them from the facility following Saturday's riot.

"(The Division of Child and Family Services) maintains contact with (Silver State Academy) and has received reports regarding our specific youth but were assured that the youth we had placed there were safe," Main said.

History of problems at facility

Problems with the facility, however, did surface in audits conducted by the Nevada Legislature's audit staff. Although the facility was deemed in 2011 to have provided "reasonable assurance that it adequately protects health, safety and welfare of the youths" there, auditors found several problems.

Auditors faulted the facility for failing to conduct adequate background checks to ensure its staff did not have a criminal background and said staff needed to strengthen its supervision.

"Inadequate supervision may have contributed to youth searching for inappropriate websites, youth using inappropriate language and contraband type items noted on campus," the report read.

But the most scathing investigation report came from California and tribal inspectors in June 2012.

"There was a much more pronounced sense of tension, dissatisfaction and distrust amongst the students interviewed toward the facility staff," a tribal inspector wrote, according to California's inspection report.

The report detailed "serious rights violations," dilapidated housing units, fire safety violations and inadequate criminal background checks for staff.

"The ROP facilities are tired, in ill repair and are at the cusp of being hazardous to the health and safety of students and staff," an inspector wrote.

A tribal inspector found that staff was physically restraining students for reasons other than to protect the student or others.

"The use of physical restraints is out of hand, illegal and must stop immediately," according to the California report.

As a result of those inspections, ROP began meeting with regulators quarterly to implement an improvement plan. They demolished the old housing units, built new ones, fired staff members guilty of infringing on students rights and created new training and treatment plans.

Within a year, ROP had corrected all of the problems and were commended by inspectors who returned in 2013 and again in 2014.

In the wake of the latest riot, California state officials are revisiting the facility, according to spokesman Michael Weston.

"It's a case of us trying to determine what is the status of the facility — obviously there was some damage there — and whether they are able to maintain their services to meet the needs of the children there," Weston said.

Steve McBride, of Nevada's Division of Child and Family Services, said the Silver State Academy is still eligible for state placement of youths.

Three ROP officials contacted by the Reno Gazette-Journal declined to comment for this story.