Audit Report on the Oversight of the St. John’s Group Home Contract by the Department of Juvenile Justice

The Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) is responsible for providing detention facilities for juveniles whose cases are pending adjudication or who are awaiting post-adjudication transfer to state facilities. DJJ oversees a network of 3 secure and 16 non-secure detention group homes in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx that admit nearly 5,000 juveniles each year. In 1986, DJJ entered into a contract with St. John’s Group Home (St. John’s) for the purchase of non-secure detention group care for juveniles. The term of the most recent contract between DJJ and St. John’s for the facility at 130-20 107th Avenue, Queens, was May 1, 2008, through April 30, 2011. Programs include services, such as case management, education, health, dental, and mental health; and activities, such as field trips, museum visits, sports, and recreation.

The audit determined whether St. John’s Group Home operated in accordance with the key terms of its contract with DJJ and whether DJJ adequately monitored the contract.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

There is limited evidence to demonstrate that St. John’s operated in accordance with the key terms of its contract with DJJ. One of the 13 performance standards—the preparation of discharge plans—was waived by DJJ. For the remaining 12 standards, we were provided evidence of St. John’s meeting only four of them. A major contributing cause was inadequate monitoring of these standards on the part of DJJ.

DJJ did perform some monitoring of the contract; however, it had deficiencies with regard to ensuring that St. John’s met all of the contract’s performance standards. We found that DJJ made 34 site visits to St. John’s during Fiscal Year 2009, including six night visits. DJJ also ensured that St. John’s had a current operating certificate, annual fire inspection, and liability insurance and that it submitted monthly indicator reports. In addition, St. John’s conducted the required background checks and sent inquiries to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment for all employees sampled and monitored the driving records of the employees. Further, our review of the case management files for the sampled youths indicates that the youths received medical assessments and educational services. However, DJJ did not adequately monitor St. John’s to ensure that it met all of the contract’s key terms. Of the 12 performance standards, DJJ could provide evidence of monitoring St. John’s compliance for only 6 of them.

Regarding other key terms of the contract, (1) there was no evidence that St. John’s provided case management services to all the youths in our sample, and (2) the St. John’s facility and visitor logbooks were not maintained in accordance with the contract requirements. Regarding DJJ’s monitoring, we found that DJJ did not prepare discharge plans for all youths in our sample, did not ensure that external audits were completed in a timely fashion, and lacked evidence of corrective action plans.

Audit Recommendations

Based on our findings, we make 14 recommendations, including that DJJ should:

• Ensure that St. John’s is aware of the performance standards to which it is being held, complies with the performance standards, and maintains evidence of its compliance.
• Ensure that St. John’s provides the required case management services to all youths and maintains evidence of the services, such as progress notes, in the case management files.
• Instruct St. John’s employees on the correct procedures for filling out the logbooks.
• Ensure that it establishes mechanisms and uses them to monitor all performance standards to determine St. John’s compliance with the contract.
• Ensure that discharge plans or reentry plans are prepared for all youth to identify their needs and to use for follow-up after discharge.
• Ensure the timely completion of annual external audits of the St. John’s facility.
• Ensure that St. John’s prepares and submits corrective action plans for all conditions requiring attention that are found during site visits.