Board probes bias, conflict allegations at treatment center

Tuesday, April 23, 2002 | 11:16 a.m.

The Economic Opportunity Board, a Las Vegas nonprofit charged with community development, is investigating allegations of conflicts of interest and racial discrimination at its drug treatment center.

The agency's board of directors will review the findings of the internal investigation Wednesday.

At issue is the process used to admit inmates from the Las Vegas Valley's four jails into the center for live-in drug treatment as part of their sentencing. Admittance can shorten the amount of time patients remain in jail.

The investigation came after a former employee complained to the board at its February meeting about alleged conflicts and unfairness.

Blake Johnson, who worked as a counselor for the center in 1999, complained about the use of an agency to assess inmates before they are admitted as inpatients. The assessments are done for a fee. The agency in question, Freedom Enterprises, is owned by the center's clinical director, Brenda Mendiola, and her husband, David.

"We're looking into how these patients are received into the center, whether there are conflicts of interest in assessing them, if equality of representation is guaranteed by the process and if there is a way to have the patients assessed without having to pay for it," said Michael Husted, assistant director for the nonprofit and the point man on the investigation.

The center, 522 W. Washington Ave., treats more than 500 patients a year. About 200 of them are inpatients, with 36 inpatients living in the center for two months at a time.

The inpatients are admitted from the jails through a public defender's plea bargain during sentencing or when they are up for parole. The two-month program includes intensive counseling and job searches.

The assessments give a clinical profile of potential inpatients and can result in an inmate being accepted or rejected by the treatment center.

Freedom Enterprises has been giving assessments to inmates since 1999, Husted said. The EOB treatment center provides inmates, their lawyers and parents a list of three agencies, but Husted said "the lion's share" is done by Freedom Enterprises.

Inmates also find out about other agencies that do assessments from their lawyers and other inmates.

Of 39 assessments done for potential inpatients at the center from March 2001 to February 2002, Freedom Enterprises did 24, or more than 60 percent, charging $150 per assessment. The fee is $15 to $50 more than the other two agencies charge.

This is the second time the nonprofit has examined the role of Freedom Enterprises in the operation of the treatment center. Similar allegations were made two years ago, before Husted became assistant director.

"As far as I can tell, we resolved whatever conflict of interest there was in using the agency by developing the procedure of offering information about the other agencies to potential inpatients," Husted said.

But in one of several inconsistencies Husted said he had found in his investigation, the list being offered has only three agencies, not five, as was originally recommended.

"This is something I will be looking into," he said.

The other two agencies currently listed are Mesa Counseling and Unity Lifecare.

Bill Holland, director of Unity Lifecare, said he never mentions any drug treatment centers by name in his assessments, nor does he direct any of the inmates, lawyers or family members to particular treatment centers.

"It seems to be self-serving, having an agency that does assessments owned by the clinical director of one of the treatment centers," Holland said.

"I would be trying to direct patients to the very center I'm working at," he said.

Paul Schollmeier, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a specialist in ethics, said the case gives cause for concern.

"There's an appearance of impropriety here," Schollmeier said.

"The jobs of the staff at the treatment center depend on having people to treat," he said. "It would be useful to have a separate agency participating in the process of bringing these patients to the center."

But Husted said the intake process was handled by an employee who had no contact with the clinical director during the process, assuring no undue influence was used.

Another allegation being investigated is whether the use of Freedom Enterprises results in more white inpatients than minorities being accepted for treatment.

Husted said he has had trouble obtaining data from local jails to determine if their racial and ethnic makeup mirrors that of the treatment center.

A federal database showed that adults arrested for drug-related charges in Las Vegas in 2000 were 56 percent white, 26 percent black and 14 percent Hispanic -- similar to the breakdown of the treatment center, he said.

"Although not all those arrested wind up in jail, this tells me that the racial and ethnic makeup of the treatment center seems to reflect the substance abuse community at large, which would lead me to believe the intake process doesn't result in racial or ethnic inequality," Husted said.

The investigation also showed that Freedom Enterprises had obtained a business license only in February of this year, despite being in business for at least three years.

Husted said this was another "weakness in our system" that the investigation report will mention when it is presented to the nonprofit's board Wednesday.

The board may choose to follow several recommendations he will make, Husted said. He declined to list them.

"Or they could take a conservative approach, and recommend not using Freedom Enterprises at all," he said.