Detention director tied to child abuse

If Gov. O'Malley had even the slightest inkling of care for these children then he would immediately remove Perkins from this role. Instead, O'Malley and his henchmen have dug in hoping no one will take notice. They even asked the Baltimore Sun to sit on this story (which the Sun did until the City Paper scooped them).

We need to tell O'Malley-- no more backroom deals, no more tax hikes, no more BGE hikes, and please no more shady hiring/firing/land deals! This Perkins stuff has really put me over the top after O'Malley went after the independent state superintended, Grasmick. The guy is on a total power trip. I'm so embarassed to have voted for him and I promise I won't make the same mistake twice!

I work for Mr. Perkins at the victor cullen center and the person I know is not the person in this article. Mr. Perkins is an excellent boss who treats the youth in our care wtih respect. At no time have we ever seen any negativity like that mentioned in this article.

The guy was accused of something, which could happen to anyone, and the charge was not sustained.

There is no legitimate excuse for not finding this during the vetting process. Applicants for sensitive positions, including fire fighters and police officers, sign a release during the application process permitting the inspection of otherwise privilege files. Also, the applicants themselves are expected to have integrity and self-report information which is relevant to the decision to hire. There is NO argument that a finding by a preponderance of the evidence that you abused and neglected children is relevant to employment within the Department of Juvenile Services. For shame. But just more crooked government.

This guy is a ticking time bomb. Victor Cullen Employee, he is known to be smooth, professional and competent. Given that you've only worked with him for a maximum of 6 months, you really should take a closer look. Now, the real problem is Sec. Devore. How many others has he hired at Victor Cullen who have a dark past? More importantly, will the O'Malley Admin take this seriously?

BTW, Montana must have cc'd the City Paper. They had the records posted on their site last night. Nice "scoop".

Perkins should be fired immediately. Even if he is innocent of the previous charges, which I strongly doubt, he intentionally withheld the fact that he had been charged with such. Almost all applications specifically say that withholding info or lying are terms for termination. I would imagine in his occupation, that would be even more pertinent. So he has no business working in this field again, especially in a director position. Abusing kids in these situations is against the law. Someone working in a law enforcemant or rehabilation capacity has no business breaking the law or abusing young people, that would be atrocious. Fire the guy immediately.

The reason Maryland didn't know his history is they never asked Montana. This was brought out a few weeks ago in Omalleywatch.com for one. I think the city paper, Examiner and the Gazette all did the work on it. Word just came in - he resigned. I wonder how many more omalley appointees have not had their backgrounds checked? Omalley hasn't released his Bar examine report yet has he?

Montana found him to be the "#2" in the proceedings. "2" was said to personally abuse kids. Go to the examiner for the updated story.

concerned non lawyer wrote:

Montana found him to be the "#2" in the proceedings. "2" was said to personally abuse kids. Go to the examiner for the updated story.

Just do a google search for Swan Valley Youth Center, Montana, all the articles explaining the original charges come up. They are terrible. He was also in charge of that facility, so even if he didn't commit any crimes (which I seriously doubt) he knew about what was going on and did nothing so he's just as guilty as if he did it. He participated though from the looks of it. He must be one of those psychopaths that get jobs in that field so they can feel powerful. How scarey for the boys who in those places.

Victor Cullen Employee wrote:

I work for Mr. Perkins at the victor cullen center and the person I know is not the person in this article. Mr. Perkins is an excellent boss who treats the youth in our care wtih respect. At no time have we ever seen any negativity like that mentioned in this article.

Any reaction to the resignation?

you know, omalley's administration has a history of not checking backgrounds. Is that because omalley just tells his staff to hire someone on his say so? How many police commissioners did he have?( that is besides himself)

child abuse
and elderly abuse

We're so glad Maryland is avoiding the problems MT faced with SVYA. I hope you learn or know that it was the protection and advoacy program in MT, Montana Advocacy Program (MAP)which first responded to the allegations of abuse at SVYA and did not give up until the facility closed and the confidential investigation by child protective services was released. In fact, MAP is still pursuing this case to have the state law changed so these investigations can be made public with the childrens' names removed quickly to prevent this kind of 2 year delay in getting the information out where it needs to be heard.

Each state has a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) protection and advocacy system to protect kids and people with disabilities. P & As are law firms which provide legal and advocacy services for children and adults with disabilities at no cost. Because the need for free legal services exceeds the services available, each P & A sets annual priorities for where to put their limited resources, but also responds to most allegations of abuse and neglect of people with disabilities. All of them do good work where the need for free legal services far exceeds the ability of the P & As to provide it. If you want to support their work, please contribute to your state P & A during your year end giving.

Who better to "help" children than a child abuser?
Nice work, King MOM....

If you'd like to support the Montana Advocacy Program, their website is http://www.mtadv.org

If you'd like to see more about this "boot camp business", the Montana PBS website http://www.montanapbs.org/ has a great video available:

“There are more than 30 privately run schools for troubled youth operating in the state of Montana. It’s an exploding industry, but strangely, most Montanans have no idea the schools even exist.”

Full Video “Who’s Watching the Kids?”: mms://www.montanapbs.org/dataf iles/Video/WWKK000000.wmv

It will take some time to load but it’s well worth it. You can also buy a DVD on the PBS website. I recommend that everyone see this and share it. This happens in other states as well.

You can run but you can't hide, as Perkins found out. THANK GOD this finally caught up to him and he can not be in the position to head a facility that is supposed to be dedicated to helping kids. Yes, Perkins covered alot of things up. We all knew it and tried unsucessfully to voice our concerns. It was always "under control" or "taken care of". My concern is, if you look into who was his right hand man, Jeff Wanger, where is he now? You want to see a ticking timebomb...he was then, as was Perkins. Neither one should ever be allowed to work with or around children, ever.

The news articles written on this subject do not accurately describe Chris Perkins, a man who is dedicated to working for kids, trying to help them turn their lives around, and teaching them to work towards a better future. I worked with him in Colorado and cannot believe that he would turn a blind eye to abuse.

Perkins must be a close relative of "just candid".