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Hostel: The Deeper Tangle
Mon, November 30, 2015
At the top of this newscast, we spent about 20 minutes talking all about the Youth Hostel - and the many breakdowns on Saturday that culminated in three girls perishing in a dorm fire. And while all the attention now is brought to focus on how the hostel was managed and what they did and didn't do, the fact is, that place is in constant crisis - not so much because of management but because the children that are sent there are themselves in crisis.

Overall, the Department of Human Development manages about 300 children who are in state care - and each case requires special attention. Today at a Racoon Street police station press conference, Director of Community Rehabilitation Starla Bradley had to take all the questions - including one about whether she would resign:..

Reporter
"Would you feel the need to resign?"

Starla Bradley, Director Community Rehabilitation Department
"I feel that the easy thing to do might be to resign and put all of this behind me. But there is still the work to do. The work still continues. The Youth Hostel in general, the population that we served, we've seen over the years they becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Just the issues that they come with. The level of aggression, the level of trauma, the level of mental and psychiatric issues and it always seems to like we are racing against time to try to fix a system, an old system to catch up to their needs, their present issues and needs. For us over the past few years we did an assessment of the entire system and we realize that we had to do more than just warehouse these children. The system was completely broken and if you had seen the facilities previously - there was a lot lacking and so for the past few years we've been working very hard to try to strengthen the facility itself, like wooden doors that we think would be indestructible - these children somehow find a way to break a part. So we graduated to metal doors."

"A few months ago we changed management. We change the manager of the Youth Hostel and we had to terminate the employment of 6 staff that we deemed them unsuitable for the post because they were unable to follow protocol and not following protocol is one of the issues that creates the risks and the tragedies that we faced."

"One of the grave challenges if you will is trying to change an old culture that we have of doing things in a lacks way and we've been struggling with this. That's one of the biggest struggles we've had at the institution, is trying to get people - all persons on board to understand that these policies are in place for a reason and breaking old practices."

Reporter
"How safe are the children in state protective care?"

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Minister of Human Dev.
"The children are safe as safe as can be, as safe as my children, as safe as your children. But when you have mishap and people breaking protocols. Just like a parent, if you neglect certain things at certain time, anything can happen."

Judith Alpuche, CEO - Min. Of Human Development
"We are not by any stretch of the imagination pretending that this system is perfect. But we have been working very diligently as Mrs. Bradley outlines to fix the system as best as we can."

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