Sent Away · APM Reports, KUER and The Salt Lake Tribune

3: Blurred Lines

March 15, 2022·30 min·2 clips

A former resident describes secret letters and sexual contact with an adult employee at a Utah teen treatment center.

The line was not blurry. Jessica Miller and Curtis Gilbert return to Integrity House, a treatment center for troubled girls, and look at how troubling conduct could sit near state oversight without much visible consequence in the records discussed here. The state record is quieter than the story. After an account from Integrity House, the reporting notes no mention of an investigation in the available state files and no sanctions against the program's license. Then the view widens. State records from the last three and a half years show staff at 13 Utah treatment centers resigned or were fired after allegations of sexual misconduct. That matters here. Lise Milne, a social work professor at a university in Canada, says residential programs need clear rules, real practice, and close monitoring around staff-child boundaries. A policy on paper is not enough. Those boundaries have to be practiced, reinforced, and watched because the children in these programs are under adult authority and, in treatment settings, may not be free to leave. Without that, kids can get hurt. Milne talks about betrayal, shame, and long-term damage, especially when no one steps in after a boundary has been crossed. The former teen's words carry the weight. She tries to explain feelings that do not line up neatly: affection, embarrassment, self-blame, and the perspective of being a mother now. The hosts let that uncertainty sit, then place it beside the expert's point that children in treatment settings need adults and systems to hold the line. The question gets bigger. If harm can happen inside a licensed program, what should prevention, response, and accountability have looked like? No one gets a clean answer. The closing credits tie the episode back to the larger investigation of Utah's teen treatment industry, with the website offered as the place to keep following the record.

As heard by us

A grave, methodical investigation into how a Utah treatment center stayed in business.

Sent Away follows Integrity House, a treatment center for troubled girls in Utah, and the state government's role in allowing it to keep operating for so many years.

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Why you'd press play

Forensic reporting on Utah treatment oversight, told with patience and no theatrics.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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