Jessica Schreifels | Salt Lake Tribune
ReporterJessica Schreifels, formerly Jessica Miller, is an investigative reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, where she has worked since 2011. She was part of the team that won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize. She has collaborated with several national outlets for investigative projects, including FRONTLINE, American Public Media and ProPublica.
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Farmers are dying by suicide at the third-highest rate by vocation in Utah. But after a federal program offering mental health support ran out of money, the state did not continue it. -
Legislators passed a bill last year that brought the first regulatory reform to teen treatment programs in 15 years. -
Some 20,000 kids have been sent away to Utah teen treatment programs since 2015. -
Utah's Office of Licensing recently confirmed that it is planning to release violation and disciplinary information online, accessible through a search on its website. -
Vista is one of the more than 100 teen treatment programs in Utah, which cater to parents and out-of-state agencies who care for struggling teenagers. -
Opening a youth treatment center is relatively simple in Utah. But state regulators often can't — or won't — shut a place down after abuse is alleged. -
Inappropriate contact between children and staff members has happened with some frequency in Utah’s teen treatment programs. From November 2018 through July 2021 — state regulators have investigated at least 20 reports of staff pushing the boundaries with clients, sometimes amounting to sexual abuse. -
With a parent’s consent, two people are sent to surprise their child while they are asleep to forcefully take them to a wilderness program or residential treatment center. -
One facility is being sued after a staffer broke a boy’s wrist, while another has been disciplined by the state for similar tactics. -
Federal regulations would impact the more than 100 teen treatment facilities in Utah, which plays an outsized role in the industry. -
In 2019, a girl from Bermuda died by suicide at West Ridge Academy, a teen treatment facility in West Jordan. The Salt Lake Tribune reports her parents filed a lawsuit against the facility last month. The litigation comes as a new state law requires centers to develop suicide prevention policies. -
A staffer at West Ridge Academy, a Utah facility for “troubled teens,” is facing a child abuse charge after prosecutors say he fractured a teen’s wrist during a restraint.
