Facility profile Arizona

Desert Hills Center for Youth and Families

Formerly Jay McCaffery School

Also known as Desert Hills, Desert Hills - Arizona

Closed Tucson, Arizona

At a glance

Address: 2797 N. Introspect Drive, Tucson, AZ
Type: Residential Treatment Center
Operated: 1973 to 1999
Serves: Co-ed
Capacity: 114
Other operators: Youth Services International

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Desert Hills Center for Youth and Families was a residential treatment center in Tucson, Arizona. It operated from 1973 to 1999.

1 death on record
1 staff member named

Deaths on record

Edith Campos age 15 | February 4, 1998 | Restraint Hartford Courant

The memorial

Staff

Administration

Joe W. King

President and CEO (1999)

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Ownership

Youth Services International operated 1995-1997

Documents

Documents on file (5)

Woodbury Reports Mentions (1)

Woodbury Reports, June 2008 (#166), P. 31: Desert Hills Center For Youth And Families 940 KB

From the Unsilenced archive

302 documents about Desert Hills Center for Youth and Families that Unsilenced collected and Kids Over Profits does not hold a copy of. They open on Unsilenced's Google Drive. Their folders: AIRES, LLC _ DESERT HILLS, Desert Hills Center for Youth & Families, THE TUNGLAND COMPANY LLC _ DESERT HILLS.

Documents (302)

Research notes

Edith Campos, 15, died in February 1998 after a face-down restraint by staff that began over a family photograph she was told to hand over (Hartford Courant, "Why They Die", 1998-10-12).
Sister facility: Desert Hills of New Mexico (Albuquerque).
In February 1999 a 17-year-old patient's skull was fractured in an attack outside a Desert Hills group home that state regulators said was not adequately staffed; in March 1999 police arrested a staff member on charges of sexual conduct with two patients, ages 14 and 17. The state had sanctioned the center in 1998 after the restraint death (Arizona Daily Star, 1999-05-07).
Added 2026-09-21 from a reader submission (seeds/new-facilities.json).
Founded 1973 as the Jay McCaffery School, originally boys only; by 1993 it was co-ed and ran acute hospitalization, day treatment, residential treatment and outpatient services on two campuses covering 50 acres (New Perspectives, April 1993).
Youth Services International operated the Desert Hills centers in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas 1995-1997 (KOP research sheet "Sequel/TSI/YSI/Vivant").
The residential adolescent program, which once filled 80 percent of the center's 114 beds, closed by June 4, 1999. Pima County Juvenile Court removed 38 youths on April 12, 1999 citing safety concerns, and the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections, the main source of residents since 1994, did not renew its contract. The for-profit center had lost $2.3 million the year before. Day treatment and the charter school were to stay open at least through that summer (Arizona Daily Star, 1999-05-07).

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Reporting this program

This program closed in 1999, so the state agency that licensed it can no longer act against it. Other channels may still be able to: the boards that license the people who worked here, law enforcement, and the civil courts.

The Arizona reporting channels list each one and what it can do. Time limits depend on the state, the kind of harm and the survivor's age, and many states have lengthened or removed them for child sexual abuse, so a program closing long ago does not by itself mean it is too late. Laws change, so the time limits we list were correct when we checked them but may have been updated since; a lawyer can tell you where things stand now.