Wilson Criscione

Idaho officials rescued a young girl from a house of horrors, only to send her to a state-licensed facility where she was preyed upon again By Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest Editor’s note: This story details cases of sexual assault. Alyssa Bowers was 3 when her mom went to prison. She was 12 when her dad

An InvestigateWest analysis reveals a lack of disciplinary action against troubled programs By Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest In 2016, Idaho state regulators wrote a scathing letter to Northwest Children’s Home, a 46-bed residential care facility in Lewiston. The facility’s license was being revoked, the letter explained, after a seven-week investigation conducted by the Idaho Department

Lawmakers hope a compromise will get Catholic lobbyists on board By Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest After failing a year ago, Washington state lawmakers are trying again this session to pass a bill that would make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. Senate Bill 6298 would add clergy to the list of mandatory reporters

Advocates express relief but push for greater oversight of facilities statewide By Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest Cornerstone Cottage, the Idaho youth treatment home featured in several recent InvestigateWest articles detailing alleged child abuse and neglect that took place there, has closed. Owner Jim Smidt notified the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on Jan. 25

Committee rejected a compromise with Catholic lobbyists that survivors argued “protects abusers” By Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest Each of the last two years, Washington state lawmakers on both sides have broadly agreed that clergy should be mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. Washington is one of just five states where that’s not required by

Lawmakers cite InvestigateWest series that revealed abuse, neglect at youth facilities By Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest In response to InvestigateWest reporting that uncovered allegations of child abuse and neglect at state-licensed facilities, the Idaho Legislature has commissioned a state watchdog investigation that will examine oversight of Idaho’s youth treatment homes. Rep. Marco Erickson, R-Idaho Falls,

Lacking accountability, program took federal money and billed Medicaid for services victims say they never received By Wilson Criscione and Kelsey Turner / InvestigateWest Three years ago, Paula Barthelmess — the mother of Idaho’s first anti-trafficking task force, the fiery advocate with the ear of policymakers, the devoted social worker allowed inside police interrogation rooms

Funding agencies overlooked red flags that anti-trafficking safe houses allegedly exploited victims By Kelsey Turner and Wilson Criscione / InvestigateWest Within days of leaving the safe house, Ally decided she needed to put it all in writing — the control, manipulation, the feeling like she’d been “trafficked and exploited” by the very place that was

Investigative reporting prompts action from oversight agency and attorney general as accusations of fraud and exploitation mount By Wilson Criscione and Kelsey Turner / InvestigateWest As more whistleblowers come forward, federal authorities have launched an investigation of an influential Idaho nonprofit accused of exploiting human trafficking victims in a Medicaid fraud scheme. The alleged scheme

Records indicate the decision to defund nonprofit was punishment for alleged involvement in InvestigateWest articles...