Ohio officials would be required to take measures against youth treatment facilities with incidents of violence and other serious violations under a bill proposed in the state legislature — including shutting them down.
The proposed Ohio House Bill 811 comes just months after a Marshall Project – Cleveland investigation exposed repeated violence at a treatment facility northeast of Columbus. The state is now trying to revoke that facility’s license.
The new bill would remove the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health’s discretion to decide whether to intervene in troubled residential treatment facilities and instead require the agency to suspend admissions, deny license renewals or shut down facilities after serious violations.
Bill sponsor Rep. Crystal Lett, a Democrat from Columbus, said she was filing the measure in response to The Marshall Project – Cleveland’s reporting on Mohican Young Star Academy. The investigation documented escalating violence, staff injuries and campus-wide fights at the state’s largest youth residential treatment facility following an ownership change in November 2024.
“Just the fact that it’s continuing in real time. It was our proof that this isn’t a hypothetical situation that we’re legislating for. It’s a real situation unfolding,” Lett said in an interview Monday. “I can’t help thinking: If my kid were in there right now, what am I doing to help that kid?”
Mohican staff, neighbors and local law enforcement described chaos at the facility in Perrysville, including a massive police presence after youth attacked staff, climbed walls inside the facility and made makeshift weapons. Youth who escaped the facility broke into nearby shops in the town or appeared in neighbors’ yards. Mohican ownership declined to comment at the time of that investigation.
After The Marshall Project – Cleveland published the investigation, the state suspended admissions to the facility.
Officials are now seeking to revoke Mohican’s license, alleging that between April 4 and Dec. 1, 2025, Mohican failed to protect residents from abuse and neglect, and citing multiple incidents in which staff used improper restraints on youth. The state also found that Mohican failed to report critical incidents, lacked documentation showing that staff were properly trained and vetted, and did not provide required treatment services for multiple boys.
A license revocation hearing is scheduled for May 7.
Zach Logan, co-owner of Mohican, wrote in an email: “We look forward to vindicating our rights through the appropriate legal process and do not believe there is merit to the alleged violations.”
This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project – Cleveland, a nonprofit news team covering Ohio’s criminal justice systems. Sign up for their Cleveland newsletter and Facebook Group, and follow The Marshall Project on Instagram, Reddit and YouTube.
With its license and certification now at risk, Mohican has filed a lawsuit against the state seeking $750,000 allocated in the 2025 state budget. In court filings, the facility argued the state is attempting to revoke Mohican’s license to avoid paying those funds. In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the state said Mohican is “failing to protect residents from acts of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, and exploitation.”
Logan wrote that, “Mohican believes it is entitled to the funds that the Ohio General Assembly directed to Mohican.”
Mohican — which late last year rebranded as Empowering to Elevate Academy — has previously withstood at least two state efforts to shut it down. In 2021, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued to remove the facility’s operator over improper restraints, but a judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence. Yost and the state vowed to move forward with revoking the facility’s license, but that effort — a lengthy hearing process lasting from December 2021 through April 2022 — failed, too.
Credit: Courtesy of Miranda Taylor for The Marshall Project
Lett characterized her bill as giving officials more power to act when abuses are discovered.
“To me, that bill is the immediate off switch for bad actors,” Lett said. “This is a 911 moment where, if we do nothing, children will continue to die and be harmed and run away in these facilities. And so we have to have an off switch to protect children immediately.”
For years, after pressure from media or other investigative agencies, Ohio residential treatment centers have surrendered licenses to operate, but few actually have had their licenses revoked.
A watchdog group, Disability Rights Ohio, has the right under federal law to visit and investigate residential treatment facilities. It first works with facilities and licensing agencies to address complaints from children and parents. Following a nine-month investigation by the group, the state suspended admissions at Sequel Pomegranate Health Systems in Columbus. The facility first changed its name, but ultimately voluntarily relinquished its license in 2021.
Separately, a 16-month investigation by Disability Rights Ohio into Youth Intensive Services in Youngstown found pervasive abuse and frequent runaways who returned to the facility after being sexually or physically abused. Despite these findings, the facility remained licensed by the state.
After the investigation was made public, the state temporarily suspended admissions in July 2024. In February 2025, the facility surrendered its license.
Addison Torrence, who was placed at Sequel Pomegranate as a youth and is now a residential liaison for ACTION Ohio, a statewide child welfare advocacy organization, lauded Lett’s bill.
“Youth safety must always come first. Too many young people are being harmed in residential facilities, and delay only puts them at greater risk,” Torrence said. “This bill ensures the state can act immediately to protect them.”
