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Thursday, April 03, 2008

Three Halfway Houses Riddled With Problems

I'd like to hear from anyone who has been at the Villa in Greeley or knows anyone there.

ADAMS COUNTY – 9NEWS has obtained state reports that claim a company running three halfway houses in Colorado is struggling to do its job.

The company, Avalon Correctional Services, helps offenders return to society, instead of prison.

Earlier this year, Colorado's Department of Public Safety produced an audit of The Villa, Avalon's halfway house in Greeley. The audit found a number of problems from untrained employees to poor living conditions to inappropriate sexual relationships between staff and offenders.

The state has subsequently pulled its contract with the facility. The Weld County Community Corrections Board is also considering whether to follow suit.

The Department of Public Safety recently released two more audits of Avalon's two other halfway houses, The Phoenix Center and The Loft House. Both are located in Adams County.

The results are very similar to those found at the Villa. The audits pointed to inadequate training, poor documentation and a high turnover rate among employees.

"Our greatest concern about the Phoenix Center is the facility's pattern of suboptimal performance over time," wrote Carl Blesch, program director with the Office of Community Corrections.

He had similar words for The Loft House.

9 News

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So why do they not put an audit on the DOC management and staff? The state auditor states that they have not audited the DOC in years.
They will find staff that is inadequately trained and regulations that are enforced that are out dated. They will find a very poor management of many facilities and huge wastes of tax money. The violent offender program should be brought back, that had a 61% rate of keeping people out! DOC top management has to go now, replaced by people who care about reform and not counting beds.

Anonymous said...

I have also heard that the Alamosa IRT is poorly run. Staff does not bother to show up for their jobs and still get paid. They are inadequately trained. That facility needs an audit also.

Anonymous said...

i have been at the phoenix center back in 2003 and r.t.c. in greeley both are run by avalon ,these problems have been there for years and nothing has changed in 5 years .clients were banging staff ,plus there were pay offs for u.a. and you could buy your way around all the rules at these places run by avalon , everyone in the system knows this and its gone on for years ,they also run a place called c.s.c. where people on parole do u.a. and counseling ,its always been a ripoff and will continue to be like this until they close all of avalons facilities....charlie

Anonymous said...

I do know someone who is dealing with this place, The person is now on something called Start Right and he has to be there between the hours of 12 midnight till 6 AM and has to pay them 119.00 week to sleep in a storage area with up to ten guys and this room has no windows and one door out..It is all about the money..they do not care about these people and there are alot of them who are not criminals, bad situations which can happen to anyone of us!!

Anonymous said...

I live in the phoenix center i am a female we live in a confined area and are under controlled movement and are put in lock down all the time . Half the staff there are around 20 years old . Are freedom is in their hands . We have case mangers that do nothing and if you have money you can get out quick . Thats what it is all about MONEY

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a horrible money hungry dung pit! FUCK THE SYSTEM!!!