At least 41 children as young as 12 have been raped or sexually assaulted over the last 25 years by staff at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, the nation’s leading nonprofit health organization specializing in treating children with intellectual disabilities, mental disorders, and trauma, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The newspaper’s investigation found that these assaults occurred at Devereux’s three campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs, its century-old home base, plus in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, New York, and Arizona.
Based on interviews of scores of former residents, family members, staff, attorneys, and reviews of criminal cases and other documents, the Inquirer found that “Devereux’s programs had been hunting grounds for predators” in an atmosphere of understaffing and lack of supervision. Last year the federal government awarded Devereux, which has 15 residential campuses serving 5,000 children every year in nine states, a $40.2 million contract to house immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. Devereux won the contract claiming it is “uniquely qualified” to detect and prevent sexual assault. Devereux leaders told the Inquirer that since late 2019 they have taken aggressive steps to prevent sexual abuse as part of a reorganization.
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hi, my name is emily brach. i am now 18 years old. i was at one of the Devereux mental health facilities about 2 years ago. my experience was horrible. one night while taking a shower, i was sexual assaulted by another female patient in the shower. i was told to not tell anyone or “I will regret it”. now seeing that this has happened to other patients at these facilities, i feel the need to speak out. although it wasn’t a staff member, i did not feel safe being there around anyone. It happened two days before my birthday and I never felt so low in my life.