Youth institute allegedly uses violence to control children

The Woodbrookers youth care treatment center in Kortehemmen, Friesland, uses violence to control the children in its care, AD reports based on a report by the Inspectorate that wasn’t made public. In October last year, Jeugdhulp Friesland, which covers Woodbrookers, pressed charges of sexual abuse and criminal activities against its own staff, according to the newspaper. The Public Prosecution Service dismissed the case, allegedly for “technical reasons.”

The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate investigated Woodbrookers after an incident involving two young people. It submitted its report in September, but it was never made public, according to AD. The report spoke of many incidents involving the two children, including “aggression and self-harming behavior.”

According to the report, workers at Woodbrookers administer “pain stimuli” to control the children. The Inspectorate did not say what the pain stimuli entail, but it did describe when it happened, AD wrote. Young people who become aggressive are grabbed and pushed to the ground, and then taken to their room or a “time-out room,” and pain stimuli are administered. They are then locked up in isolation. According to AD, the institution has been using this method since 2009.

The Inspectorate report also said that Woodbrookers failed to report serious incidents. After a sexual misconduct incident, for example, Woodbrookers transferred the alleged perpetrator but made no internal reports, didn’t report the incident to the Inspectorate, and failed to investigate how the abuse could happen.

According to the Inspectorate, the children in Woodbrookers often fall under the care of substitute workers who are not always properly trained. The Inspectorate ordered the institute to submit plans for improvement. But according to AD, nothing really changed until October last year, when Jeugdhulp Friesland pressed charges of sexually transgressive behavior and criminal activities against its own staff.

Earlier this month, there was another commotion at Woodbrookers when some of the temporary staff deployed at the institution proved to have connections with drug crime, according to the newspaper. On August 23, Woodbrookers ended its partnership with employment agency Ultracare for this reason.

When asked about the report, director Johan Krul of Jeugdhulp Friesland told AD that “the incidents that must be reported to the inspectorate are reported as always.” He said the institution sometimes has to work with other organizations “to provide good quality of care.” He said that the institution uses hardly any temporary workers anymore and confirmed that it cut ties with Ultracare.

According to Krul, Woodbrookers is implementing improvement plans and has stopped using its isolation rooms. When asked about workers using “pain stimuli” on children, Krul said: “The rules and field standards have recently been tightened. We stick to those agreements.”