PROVIDENCE — “My name is Trevor,” the teenager says. “I want to tell you what happened in Saint Mary’s.”
So begins one of the voice messages that Boston Globe reporter Amanda Milkovits has received from one of the 11 youths still living in St. Mary’s Home for Children, Rhode Island’s only psychiatric residential facility for children.
In January, the state Office of the Child Advocate issued a scathing report about the North Providence facility, revealing abuse, neglect, understaffing, and even a biker club working security. In February, Milkovits reported that North Providence police were called to St. Mary’s more than 300 times in the past two years, mainly for children as young as 8 running away.
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On the Rhode Island Report podcast, Milkovits brings us up to date, detailing her latest story about a family that sent their grandchild to St. Mary’s after he had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals. She has received texts and voice message from the teenager, Trevor, in response to questions, and she has interviewed his grandparents extensively.
Milkovits said Trevor is one of the children who have run away from the home, and police found him on Interstate 295 last summer.
“I ran away,” Trevor told the Globe, “and it was the highway cops that found me, ‘cause people who saw me were calling.”
Milkovits said Trevor has sent her photos of broken glass in the playground at the home, there have been reports of rats, and the air conditioning broke, leaving the children sweltering in the summer.
“I was on a COVID unit,” Trevor said, “They forgot to give me food, and it was hot. They stopped a med without telling anyone. They stopped my Prozac, my antidepressant. It wasn’t even the doctor that stopped it.”
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Milkovits said Trevor’s grandfather told her the place reeked from backups of water or possibly sewage. “A lot of complaints about how unclean it is, how dirty it is,” he said. “Feet sticking to the floor.”
Trevor also recounted how two other children entered an unlocked office, grabbed a set of keys for the home’s van, and drove away. Milkovits said Trevor went into the office, found a pair of scissors, and cut himself.
Eventually, the grandparents decided they’d had enough, so they showed up and took Trevor to their house, Milkovits said. But Trevor was in the care of the state Department of Children Youth & Families, and a few days later a Family Court judge ordered them to take him back to St. Mary’s, where he remains now, she said.
Trevor told Milkovits that while there has been some improvement since the January child advocate’s report, many more changes are needed.
“The one thing that I really think has improved: The staff are getting nicer,” Trevor said. “But what I want to see is peace, better food, more off grounds here ... I want staff to handle a crisis better.”
On the podcast, Milkovits talks about how St. Mary’s has responded to the child advocate’s report and whether a proposed $11 million expansion of the home will go forward.
To get the latest episode each week, follow Rhode Island Report podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcasting platforms, or listen in the player above.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.