The former director of the Oregon Youth Authority Joe O’Leary, who was fired last week, said he was “floored” when he was placed on administrative leave. He was not aware of how severe a backlog of abuse reports had become, according to an internal investigation done by the state’s Department of Administrative Services released on Thursday night.
But the latest report into the mishandling of abuse complaints at the youth agency said O’Leary should have known about the mishandled complaints, which posed a threat to both youth and staff safety.
There were at least two reports in which an OYA employee was accused of sexually abusing a child in custody and was not reported to the state police. The latest report was done by Travis Hampton, the investigator for the Chief Human Resources Office within DAS.
The youth authority is part of the state’s juvenile justice system. It oversees and operates five youth correctional facilities and four transitional facilities, including MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.
O’Leary said he was under the impression complaints were generally being handled according to OYA policy up until recently, according to the report. O’Leary said he had wanted to develop an action plan after learning of the backlog, but was told by Gov. Tina Kotek’s staff to “stand down” on transparency efforts and wait until a public records request was submitted.
The DAS report also offers a deeper look into the growing frustrations from some current and former Oregon Youth Authority staff over the thousands of abuse complaints that were not properly reviewed. Kotek fired O’Leary last week.
O’Leary initiated the investigation into the backlog of complaints two months ago. He asked for a peer audit by Oregon Department of Corrections administrators to dig into OYA’s Professional Standards Office. The office was overseen by Raymond Byrd, but Byrd resigned during this investigation. He has a “name clearing” hearing Friday afternoon in which Byrd will have a chance to explain his perspective.
O’Leary’s firing and news of the backlog of abuse reports were first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The report released on Thursday night was heavily redacted. But it includes conversations from many OYA employees or former employees who said they had voiced frustration for years with how the complaints had been handled.
Estimates show the agency had more than 3,000 cases that had not been properly investigated. At least two of the complaints involved sustained allegations of a current OYA staff member having an improper relationship with a youth in custody, according to the DAS report.
When staff tried to raise issues with administrators, their reports were often met with “an apathetic or passive response,” according to staff members whose names were redacted but whose comments were included in the report.
Many of the complaints centered around Byrd and the Professional Standards Office. Byrd responded in the report and said he did not feel the backlog created a risk to youth or staff. He also said it was unrealistic to handle the number of cases they were being given with their small staff.
He said the Professional Standards Office was created to give the appearance “something was being done,” according to the report.
In an email to the state’s human resource officer, O’Leary said he asked for an independent review once he became aware of the internal backlog of cases. The governor’s office confirmed O’Leary initiated the report. He said he also asked for a pilot program to create an ombudsperson at the youth authority.
“My intent for these reviews was to determine how this backlog occurred so that reasoned decisions could be made about personnel and systems changes,” O’Leary wrote. “Instead, this report recounts conflicting perspectives and workplace tensions that date back several years and fails to identify the root cause of the problems I was trying to address. While the result is disappointing, I would not change my decision to call for this review because it was the right thing to do.”
State Rep. Kim Wallan, a Medford Republican, sent out a statement saying U.S. Attorney William Narus should investigate the Oregon Youth Authority. Firing one person at the top doesn’t go far enough, Wallan said.
“The severity and extent of these allegations are deeply troubling,” Wallan said in a statement, adding, “Weeks after revelations of the backlog of allegations, no additional steps have been taken to protect OYA youth from predators employed in the agency.”
OYA has come under fire recently and is facing several lawsuits accusing staff members of abuse and supervisors of failing to report abuse.
