584. Magnolia Academy

Magnolia Academy in Tennessee was a for-profit group home located in Columbia, Tennessee. Sixty girls escaped from the facility in the period from 2011 to 2014.

In fact the entire firm – ResCare – running the facility seems to have difficulties. A wilderness program was shut down by the authorities years earlier.

For a long time all the involvement the authorties did was to bring the girls back. None seemed to ask why the girls ran or they would be better served if the courts gave them community service tasks they could do after school instead of probation and a stay at these low-security group homes where they would interact with girls exchanging what they learned about crime. Acts should result in consequences not in learning courses in crime which too often is the case when you lock minors up.

While it sounded that the girls saw their stay at these facilities as an adventure in the long run it could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• James Bennett column: Magnolia Academy, DCS work on corrective actions (Columbia Daily Herald)
• DCS removes girls from troubled facilities (WSMV news)
• Academy closing outdoor education program amid state probe (Southern Standard)
• Magnolia Academy escapes raise police concerns; DCS says teens pose no risk to community (Columbia Daily Herald)