‘Pattern of Abuse’ Found in Arizona Youth Camp Probe

A five-month Arizona state investigation concluded Wednesday that “abuse and neglect” led to the death of a 16-year-old Sacramento youth at Arizona Boys Ranch and prompted officials to deny an operating license to the paramilitary-style boot camp for juvenile offenders.

The Department of Economic Security report also revealed that 17 former staff members will be placed on the Arizona Child Abuser Directory as a result of their treatment of Nicholaus Contreraz. The directory is a confidential computerized list meant to help the department screen people for foster care and other children’s services.

“The circumstances surrounding his death, and the repeated mistreatment of other residents, demonstrate a pattern of abuse and neglect by Arizona Boys Ranch and a lack of concern by senior management and line staff for the rights of youth placed in their care and custody,” said department Director Linda Blessing.

Arizona officials said it was the first time they could recall the state denying a license to such a facility. Boys Ranch has 20 days to appeal the decision and may continue operating during that time. Officials said they doubted that another application for a license would be accepted unless the ranch made significant changes.

The announcement at a packed news conference here follows months of speculation about the future of the 49-year-old institution, which has a national reputation for sometimes rehabilitating troubled youths and has enjoyed wide political support in Arizona.

But that support has been tested since the March 2 death of Contreraz, who died while being punished at the ranch’s Oracle campus.

“I’m very glad that they are losing their license,” said Julie Vega, his mother, in a phone interview. “That’s a big step. I’m very gratified. What they’ve been doing should have been stopped a long time ago.”

The Department of Economic Security produced a 3,000-page investigative report and a 1,000-page licensing report. According to Assistant Director James Hart, the investigation was the most extensive ever conducted by the agency and the most costly, at $100,000.

Hart said that in addition to finding specific cases of abuse by staff members, the report concluded that the program’s approach of physical restraint and aggressive punishment was troubling.

“They must make significant changes in the core philosophy of the program,” he said. “It crosses the line.”

Two other investigations of Contreraz’s death are ongoing. The FBI is investigating whether anyone’s civil rights were violated, and Pinal County is weighing whether to press criminal charges. The investigation has swamped the rural county attorney’s office so much that it has applied for a grant to fund its effort.

Boys Ranch had already received a crippling blow in July when the California Department of Social Services advised all California counties that it was ending funding for out-of-state placements at the facility. Nearly three-fourths of the 400 juveniles at the ranch’s seven campuses were from California.

The California report concluded that Contreraz died as a result of “medical neglect and physical abuse” and charged that there was a pattern of “widespread excessive use of physical restraint and hands-on confrontation” by staffers.

It is not known how many youths remain at the facility. According to Hart, the ranch reported last week that it had 151 youths at two facilities. Seventy-four were from California. He said that only four Arizona boys remained at the ranch.

Calls to Boys Ranch on Wednesday were not returned.

Contreraz’s death became a lightning rod for debate about the value of paramilitary-style camps and, in California, the wisdom of sending about 1,000 juveniles to out-of-state facilities that would not meet state licensing requirements. Calls for reform came from lawmakers as well as a network of families whose loved ones have been mistreated or died in juvenile camps.

The question of regulating out-of-state placements was settled when Gov. Pete Wilson last week signed legislation that significantly increased control over such placements. The law requires that out-of-state facilities observe California standards of humane treatment and that those facilities be licensed by the Department of Social Services.

Arizona Boys Ranch has a long history of documented complaints against it. Arizona officials said nearly 100 child abuse complaints have been filed against Boys Ranch or its employees in the last five years. Twenty-one of the abuse claims have been substantiated by state officials during licensing proceedings and others are still under investigation.

Hart said there have been more than 60 abuse claims since Contreraz’s death.

The facility’s license had been put on provisional status because of abuse on three previous occasions. In the latest case, its license was renewed in 1996, with the stipulation that it enact more stringent reporting on ill or hurt children and increase staff training on the use of physical restraint.