A six-month investigation by South Dakota News Watch has revealed a pattern of improper treatment of residents of the intensive youth treatment facility over the past decade that resulted in a variety of physical injuries and emotional trauma. Brittany Dozark of Sioux Falls spent two years as an employee of Aurora Plains and said major reforms are needed to improve therapeutic outcomes for residents but also to ensure their safety. “I definitely think there’s a sense of brutality there,” said Dozark, who worked to counsel and aid residents at the academy. “There’s nothing that says to these kids that, ‘Hey, everything is going to be OK.’ It’s more like they messed up and they’re in ‘kids prison’ now, not a place to get therapy, treatment or help for mental conditions.” [Residents suffer physical, mental and sexual abuse at S.D. youth home]An activist judge with deep ties to the South Dakota Republican Party is still covering up Brady Folkens' death at the hands of the state. Folkens died in custody after a botched diagnosis at the now-shuttered STAR Academy on December 21, 2013.
State Senator Lynne DiSanto has been raising awareness of the abuses committed by the Children's Home Society leading up to the disappearance of Serenity Dennard. The Children's Home Society has been under the regulatory microscope before for violations of trust. One former executive director is none other than Republican former South Dakota Governor Denny Daugaard.
The reasoning is hardly mysterious: it's all about the money policing for profit, sex trafficking, hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the South Dakota Republican Party destroying lives, depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule.
Inbox: @SDNewsWatch is doing a follow-up on abuses at a South Dakota youth prison and is looking into the story of the negligent homicide of Brady Folkens while in state custody.
ReplyDeleteBrady Folkens is the most crazy story to unfold in SD that I know of. It involves Dr Bothworth...the state poisoning a child at Starr Academy (where FOUR OTHER BOYS DIED AND NO ONE GIVES A DARN!)and then blaming a virus when the autopsy proves them wrong... and then they let him suffer with miocarditis until he had organ failure...then they threw him to an ER doc who has no idea what had happened to Brady...then they give mom back custody while he is being flown back to Sioux Falls so when the plane lands mom now has to pay all the medical bills. Then Dr Lars Aaning has his medical license revoked for pointing out the discrepancies that led to Brady's death...then mom gets falsely accused of stalking a doctor...a FAKE letter is entered into Brady's legal file and finally mom is fired from her state job for suing the state...SOMEONE better get on this one...
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Lora. Brady's mom deserves justice for her loss and her day in court is still coming. Your prayers and our efforts will help get that for her.
DeleteI'm a victim of family court,& the county CPS in Adair County Missouri,they have a juvenile Justice center kid prison here,& they have had suicides & girls that have aged out come forward with allegations against the mental health counselor for rape,there are more people who are now adults who have been abused & sexually abused in a home that the head of the department of children services was the foster mom, these people have multi million dollar homes & brand new vehicles,the GA,is bff with the judge,& this county is widely known for its incestous corruption,I lost my 2 son's for proven false allegations & did everything I could to get them home only to be completely railroaded in the end,my sons are separated from each other and being abused & TRAUMATIZED,& if they weren't good kids they would put them in the center,they tried to get me put in a mental facility and used my mental health as the reason for removal with no grounds,or incidents just straight targeted us & my sons are both over 12 I raised them alone,& this has ruined our lives, they've been literally used as test rats & the information was slipped that they have a "genetic mutation"that they don't have a name for yet, they're giving them meds and shots & testing their blood constantly,& I've had no contact since this time last year.My heart goes out to you and your family for the loss of you're sweet boy, & the others who are gone as well. This is a horrible unreal reality for so many families and should not be happening in our country,but instead it's growing worse- covered up & rewarded,ignored & people who speak up lose their liscences ,&:some their own lives. God please help us to get divine justice & protect our kids give us strength.
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