Cullen Center’s first year rocky, facility official says

Despite the successful graduates, the center’s first year back in operation after a five-year dormant period has been rocky. Four juveniles went AWOL, and eight more had to be transferred to more secure detention facilities, Dixon said.

Even though the center is currently at 75 percent of its resident capacity, its security apparatus is still not complete, and the state has had difficulties in hiring people to run it.

‘‘There has been considerable staff turnover at Victor Cullen,” an April facility report by the state attorney general’s office states. ‘‘The administration recognizes the need for ongoing training of both new and more senior staff members in behavior management in implementing the treatment model.”

The center’s first superintendent, Chris Perkins, was rapidly promoted, and quickly resigned after allegations surfaced that he ran an allegedly abusive regime for juveniles at a Montana detention facility.

Since Perkins’ departure, communications between the center and its neighbors have dropped off.

‘‘It’s been a long time since we’ve had a meeting,” said David Dingle, a neighbor of the center and member of a community advisory committee that met two or three times with Perkins and his staff. ‘‘We haven’t had a meeting since” Perkins resigned,” Dingle said. ‘‘I don’t really know what’s going on.”

Dingle said that he has received notice of a meeting scheduled for Aug. 20 at the center.

The center has an operating budget of $6 million for fiscal 2009, and will be at full capacity – 48 residents – by Sept. 1. It cost more than $10 million to reopen the century-old center, according to Tammy M. Brown, public information officer and director of special projects for the Department of Juvenile Services.

Cullen Centertimeline

1907: State builds the Hilltop State Hospital for tuberculosis patients on a remote, 500-acre campus in Sabillasville.

1965: The facility becomes a reform school for boys.

June 2002: State closes Victor Cullen Center after audits find fault with how Sarasota-based firm Youth Services International, was running the facility.

April 2004: State law passed mandating that all juvenile detention facilities in Maryland be run by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.

July 2, 2007: Victor Cullen Center reopens as state-run facility with six residents, 35 staffers.

Dec. 13: Superintendent Chris Perkins resigns after allegations of abuse at Montana juvenile facility surface; Helen Mency takes over at Cullen Center.

April⁄May 2008: Maryland Department of Juvenile Services brings in intervention team of veteran employees to reinforce Cullen Center’s mission and train staff in positive peer culture.

June 16: Two teens escape Cullen Center; neighbors are informed by automatic calling system. The juveniles are the third and fourth residents to go AWOL from Victor Cullen since its reopening.