Why children risked fleeing Ohio’s Fox Run Center
Former residents say conditions at the Belmont County facility were so severe that children attempted repeated escapes and some preferred juvenile detention.
A major investigation into one of Ohio’s largest residential treatment facilities for children paints a troubling picture of life inside the center, with former residents describing violence, repeated suicide attempts, staff restraints and desperate efforts to flee what was intended to be a therapeutic environment. According to reporting by The Marshall Project, children housed at Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents in Belmont County said conditions became so difficult that some viewed juvenile detention as preferable to remaining at the facility.