Sequel Youth & Family Services: Alabama Patient Advocacy Agency Files Complaint against Owens Cross Roads Psych Facility

January 4, 2022

The Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program filed an immediate jeopardy complaint Thursday against Sequel Owens Cross Roads, a psychiatric residential treatment facility for girls under the age of 21.

The complaint, filed with the Alabama Departments of Public Health, Mental Health, Human Resources and Medicaid, claims staff at the Huntsville-area facility used violent and illegal restraints against the girls, most of whom are in foster care, and that one employee strangled a resident.

According to a letter sent to the departments tasked with overseeing the facility, ADAP met with nine residents who said staff strangled a resident, causing her to fall to the ground, unable to breathe; that staff constricted the airways of a resident while restraining her; and that staff threw a resident to the ground, causing bruising to both her arms.

The letter also states that staff brought in marijuana and vapes for residents and that police have been called to the facility by residents on multiple occasions.

ADAP says these reported actions place the residents “at risk for serious injury, harm, impairment or death.” The advocacy and protection organization also noted that “complaints like these are not new when it comes to OCR, and the three other facilities that Sequel operates in Alabama.”

In July 2020, ADAP, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Children’s Rights, sent a letter to the same four government agencies noting “grave concerns” about the health and safety of residents inside Alabama’s four Sequel facilities throughout the state.

“These facilities are violent and chaotic places where youth are physically and emotionally abused by staff and peers, subjected to wretched living conditions, provided inadequate supervision and medical care, and subjected to illegal seclusion and restraint,” the letter stated.

Sequel, a privately-run company that operates youth treatment centers throughout the country, has faced scrutiny for allegedly poor conditions and pervasive abuses. In 2020, a facility closed in Michigan after a 16-year-old Cornelius Fredrick was killed by three staff members who sat on his abdomen for ten minutes, resulting in asphyxiation. In Alabama, Sequel Three Springs, located in Madison, was closed in 2019 after numerous residents ran away and an employee was charged, and later convicted, with having sexual contact with residents.

The July 2020 letter claimed that at the Sequel facilities, which are still operational, youth have reported male staff repeatedly entering female residents’ bedrooms, where there are no security cameras, as well as other abuses, such as staff violently yanking residents out of bed and throwing them to the ground.

“As evidenced by the recent restraint reports provided by [Owens Crossroads] residents, the same systemically dangerous and chaotic conditions we wrote about more than a year ago persist to this day,” said the letter.

The organization is calling for an investigation into the facilities and the immediate revocation of Sequel’s licenses in the state.

Sequel and the departments of Mental Health and Medicaid did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

A spokesperson for DHR stated that “since we are involved in a lawsuit with some of the parties involved, we cannot provide comment.”

ADPH said officials are reviewing the complaint and “takes these concerns seriously and will take all appropriate measures to ensure the safety and welfare of the children residing at these treatment facilities.”

Source: Savannah Tryens-Fernandes, “Alabama advocacy groups claim illegal restraints, strangulation at Sequel youth facility,” AL.com, Dec. 30, 2021, URL: https://www.al.com/news/2021/12/alabama-advocacy-groups-claim-illegal-restraints-strangulation-at-sequel-youth-facility.html