A Wyoming ranch accused of abusing children and forcing them to perform manual labor lost its license earlier this year after state officials documented a litany of safety and sanitary violations. But the ranch found a way to stay open and will no longer need a license to care for children, a development that has alarmed youth rights advocates.

The Wyoming Department of Family Services in June revoked the group home license from Triangle Cross Ranch, a facility that claims it can help transform teenage boys from misbehaving rebels into “thoughtful, respectful, and responsible young men” for a $5,800 monthly fee.

The facility, which typically has five or fewer boys enrolled at a time, will now operate without a license because the owner said last month he was appointed guardian of the youth living there, a department spokesman said. The spokesman said the owner provided copies of the paperwork, which was filed in Wyoming.

And state officials will no longer conduct regular welfare inspections going forward due to another licensing exemption for ranches or farms that do not offer services to children who are homeless, delinquent or have an intellectual disability, according to the department’s rules.

“It’s incredibly troubling that they would have decided to go this route after losing their license to be a child caring facility,” said Donna Sheen, founder and director of the Wyoming Children’s Law Center, a nonprofit. She noted that the Department of Family Services will now need a specific allegation or complaint in order to investigate the ranch.

An NBC News investigation last year found that the ranch and Trinity Teen Solutions, a facility for girls run by the same family, had operated in rural Wyoming for years despite repeated complaints from youth of cruel and humiliating treatment. State inspectors documented numerous red flags at Triangle Cross Ranch, including misrepresenting its services, punishing boys for speaking with state officials and complaining about their treatment, and making children physically restrain each other.

Andrew Scavuzzo, who sued Triangle Cross Ranch over abuse he alleged took place at the ranch in 2012, said he’d been branded with a hot iron when he was a boy at the facility. He said he also had to haul dead animal carcasses, was forced by staff to huff gasoline and that boys had to box each other as punishment.

In April, a department official observed broken windows, and doors and lights that did not work during an inspection of the ranch. There was also a dead calf that had been lying in the yard for three days and the inspector witnessed a dog eating it. Youth were left alone while a staff member napped, inspection files show. Officials also noted that weapons, such as a large knife, and tobacco products were left lying unattended at the ranch.

The state found that one boy had to be taken to a hospital for self-harming after the ranch failed to give him his medication for 26 days. The ranch refused to take the boy back because he was too high risk, so he was sent to another group home, records show.

Inspectors found that Schneider, the ranch owner, had also moved the children to Montana earlier this year to hide them from state officials.

At the last inspection of the ranch in July, the state found additional violations, including an adult living in the children’s bunk house, lack of background checks, and one of two youth residing there without any bedding. Again, there was feces on the floor.

  • deconstruct@lemm.eeOP
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    1 year ago

    Instead of sending multiple people to jail for abusing kids, officials will turn a blind eye to abuse it knows will happen.

    Abuse is normalized in the “troubled teen” industry and it’s absolutely infuriating.

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s more that the republicans in the statehouse have limited the power of state agencies to protect kids, because conservatives see children as property, not people.

      So the state agencies are screaming to the heavens about this shit, and are barred from acting due to laws that they must obey or else they can’t help any kids.

    • mommykink@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      According to the article, the owner has been granted custody of the children so there’s no license for child care is required. It doesn’t mean that agencies like CPS can’t intervene, though.

      • Evie @lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That means the parents were complicit and gave(signed) away their parental rights away… how fucking heinous

        • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Parents probably got tired of fucking them, or they aged out and only wanted toddlers. Whatever the case, when I see a Republican on the street—I usually think they’ve probably fucked a kid.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Because you think they take too many kids or because you think they don’t remove enough kids from bad situations?

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          As someone who went through the system for a bit, my personal issue is that theyre a bunch of fuck ups. One foster parent didnt speak much english (she was nice enough but I couldnt really communicate), one just didnt like me and just derided me a lot, third ones were nice, and the last one let her snot nosed grandkids break my shit.

          On top of that they kept trying to put me with my father who sexually, physically, emotionally, and verbally abused me. Then they put me with my mom who only emotionally, verbally, and physically abused me. Lucky me the judge eventually put me with my grandmother who fucking hates my father and thinks my mother is a grade a fuckup.

          And on top of all that im Autistic, so im just a bundle of mental health issues even 14 years after it all ended.

          So yeah theres a fuckton not to like abput CPS, mess needs a massive reform. And before anyone assumes that this may just be red state BS im from southern California.

          • Serinus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Sure, but how much of that is your family and just the world and how much of it is CPS? There’s a reason they’re extremely reluctant to permanently remove kids from their parents.

            Does it need reform or resources? Not a lot of people out there looking to home 9-14 year olds who likely have behavioral problems.

            • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              It needs both reform and resources plus oversight boards. Theres no reason they shouldve been pushing me with my father given that I was more or less raised exclusively with my mothers family by that point, and everytime I was away from people trying to make me like him id default back to bloodthirst.

              Admitedly my situation was extra fucked guven the fact that a family friend who was a deputy at the time asked around and became convined that my father was friends with a one of the local CPS higher ups.

          • dtc@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            So they either risk it in the system or stay where they are being abused.

            I can confidently say the risk is worth avoiding a known abuser.

            • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Most certainly, even with all the fuck ups being in the system was a notable improvement for me. The problem was that they kept trying to put me with my father and were highly resistent to giving me to my maternal grandmother. To the point that my case worker said in court " you will never get that child". The point is that the system needs heavy reform, increased funding, and more direct oversight.