As the Thanksgiving holiday approached, the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department began making arrangements for a half-dozen foster kids who were living in the agency’s office buildings. What would be a comfortable place for them to spend the holiday, they wondered.
Their answer: a locked facility for teens with a history of violence and mental illness.
And so the department moved the foster kids to Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center in Albuquerque, where they would spend Thanksgiving in cell-like rooms with cinderblock walls.
“It was crazy,” said one of the teenagers who was sent to the facility for the holiday (his attorney asked that he remain anonymous to protect him from possible retaliation). He described a Thanksgiving dinner of undercooked chicken nuggets and canned vegetables served from the facility’s cafeteria, and a night spent in a cold cell with a metal bed bolted to a bare, blue-gray wall. He and the other foster youth were kept separate from the general population, but at one point he said some of the residents threw rocks at them.
“It’s supposed to be a day for you to spend with people you care about,” he said. “Instead they put us through hell.”
After Thanksgiving, some of the kids were moved back to the CYFD office building in Albuquerque — another placement that is considered inappropriate for foster children. As Christmas drew near, several of them ran away.
In response to questions from Searchlight New Mexico, CYFD said six foster youth were placed in a “cottage” at the Sequoyah facility over the Thanksgiving holiday, where they were supervised by CYFD staff. The department said it moved the kids to Sequoyah to “ensure adequate space for them” and to make sure they were “comfortable.”
“Our dedicated staff work incredibly hard to ensure that children in our care over the holidays have a sense of security and normalcy,” CYFD spokesperson Jessica Preston said. “Our staff provide gifts for everyone in offices over the holiday season, and CYFD staff cook meals for children in CYFD care staying at the office.”
Unsuitable, unsafe placements
The decision to move foster kids to Sequoyah comes amid years of evidencethat CYFD is routinely putting its most vulnerable children in inappropriate foster placements such as office buildings and youth homeless shelters, in violation of a landmark 2020 legal settlement.
“It is concerning that the State of New Mexico is punishing traumatized children who cannot live with their families by placing them in locked facilities that are meant for violent juveniles,” said Beth Hess, an attorney who has represented kids in foster care sent to inappropriate placements.
“Children should not be penalized because they don’t have family to take care of them over the holidays. Moving children into these types of facilities is seen as a punishment and will impact them both psychologically and emotionally, further adding to their trauma.”
The Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center, a facility for juveniles ages 13 to 17 who have a history of violence and a mental health disorder. Nadav Soroker/Searchlight New Mexico It was not the first time that CYFD has placed foster youth in facilities built for adolescents with violent or criminal histories: In December 2021, the department temporarily moved a group of children from its office building to the Albuquerque Girls Reintegration Center, a former halfway house for recently released juvenile inmates. A sexual assault allegedly occurred there between two foster youth five days before Christmas, according to a police investigation. Several such instances have also taken place among teenagers placed in offices and shelters, police records show. A 2022 photo of a room where kids slept at the main CYFD office complex in Albuquerque. It was taken by a CYFD employee assigned to supervise one of the foster children housed there. Credit: Provided to ProPublica by Sara Crecca
Running from CYFD
After Thanksgiving, the boy who stayed at Sequoyah said he was among a group of teenagers slated to spend the winter holidays at CYFD’s Albuquerque office. Christmas can be an especially traumatizing time for survivors of abuse and neglect, a time when supportive and nurturing foster placements are all the more critical, child advocates say.
Between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve 2023, CYFD had 22 children spending at least one night in an agency office, according to Preston — more kids in a single week than the department usually houses in offices in a month.
“Nobody wants to spend Christmas in an office building,” the boy said. As Christmas Eve drew near, he gathered what belongings he could and ran away. He said he spent Christmas alone on the streets. “They basically force you to run away,” he told Searchlight. “They’re screwing up every kid now.”
While he was on the run, three other kids ran from the CYFD office in Albuquerque, according to the agency.Holidays for foster teens: CYFD sends kids to a lockup with cold “cells” and metal beds
“I’m alright,” the boy added. Given everything he’s already been through, this wasn’t such a big deal. He said he is now staying with friends and isn’t in imminent danger. “I’m just lucky I got some friends.”
This story was originally published in Searchlight New Mexico, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that seeks to empower New Mexicans to demand honest and effective public policy.