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- Sep 30, 2011
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One day last August, Gwendolyn Sands stood before a Fulton County judge and promised to rehabilitate a teenage boy already well on his way to a life of violence.
She called herself a visionary.
Her organization, Visions Unlimited, would pair the boy with a “life coach” for “24/7 supervision,” Sands told the judge. Her staff would instruct the boy in life skills, career readiness and the perils of street gangs. They would hold “family support” meetings every month – “and more often,” Sands said, “as necessary.”
Later, she would even agree to take the boy into her own home. It seemed the only way to shelter him from the streets where he had stuck a pistol in a woman’s face and robbed her.
But Sands kept almost none of her promises to transform Jayden Myrick. Now Myrick is charged with murder, accused of shooting 34-year-old Christian Broder during a robbery on July 8 outside Atlanta’s Capital City Club. Broder, an Atlanta native who lived in Washington, D.C., died July 20. He left behind a wife and an infant daughter.
And, at 17, Myrick faces life in prison – the very outcome the judge had hoped Sands would help prevent.
The case calls attention to a rarely glimpsed corner of Georgia’s criminal-justice system. As the state tries to reduce one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates by focusing on rehabilitation rather than long prison terms, judges sometimes rely on private organizations like Visions Unlimited to help turn offenders around. But those programs operate with little or no oversight, or accountability for failures. Fulton County’s judges have no roster of vetted organizations that work to keep defendants out of trouble.
Sands, who started Visions Unlimited in the 2000s, is a 71-year-old former school teacher who claims no formal training in social work or criminology. Her organization operates out of a borrowed room in a public library in southwest Atlanta. It lost a contract with the Atlanta Public Schools in 2010 after it stopped paying its employees. It lost its tax-exempt status as a non-profit foundation three years ago and has no apparent source of funding. Even its website is shut down.
Sands, too, has a history of financial problems, public records show: seven evictions, one foreclosure, four wage garnishments, five judgments for bad debts, one lien seeking to collect $33,000 in unpaid federal taxes, and one arrest for passing a bad check.
She declined numerous requests for an interview. In an email on Friday, she described Visions Unlimited as “an independent self-funded grassroots initiative.” Earlier, the organization released a statement saying Sands’ son – who served prison time for forgery and is shown on corporate records as the organization’s chief financial officer – would take questions about Myrick on Monday “for 30 minutes only and no longer.”
“All services were provided” to Myrick, the statement said. “He regularly attended sessions, was present for his hours of work obligation as well as his classroom attendance.”
The statement said Myrick did not act inappropriately under the organization’s care.
“Visions Unlimited is not responsible for Jayden or for any of the other students during their personal time spent away from the program.”
‘Visionary’ didn’t keep promises to help violent teenager
That's a problem. He should not have been released to her. At some point people have to start asking do these programs work?
She called herself a visionary.
Her organization, Visions Unlimited, would pair the boy with a “life coach” for “24/7 supervision,” Sands told the judge. Her staff would instruct the boy in life skills, career readiness and the perils of street gangs. They would hold “family support” meetings every month – “and more often,” Sands said, “as necessary.”
Later, she would even agree to take the boy into her own home. It seemed the only way to shelter him from the streets where he had stuck a pistol in a woman’s face and robbed her.
But Sands kept almost none of her promises to transform Jayden Myrick. Now Myrick is charged with murder, accused of shooting 34-year-old Christian Broder during a robbery on July 8 outside Atlanta’s Capital City Club. Broder, an Atlanta native who lived in Washington, D.C., died July 20. He left behind a wife and an infant daughter.
And, at 17, Myrick faces life in prison – the very outcome the judge had hoped Sands would help prevent.
The case calls attention to a rarely glimpsed corner of Georgia’s criminal-justice system. As the state tries to reduce one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates by focusing on rehabilitation rather than long prison terms, judges sometimes rely on private organizations like Visions Unlimited to help turn offenders around. But those programs operate with little or no oversight, or accountability for failures. Fulton County’s judges have no roster of vetted organizations that work to keep defendants out of trouble.
Sands, who started Visions Unlimited in the 2000s, is a 71-year-old former school teacher who claims no formal training in social work or criminology. Her organization operates out of a borrowed room in a public library in southwest Atlanta. It lost a contract with the Atlanta Public Schools in 2010 after it stopped paying its employees. It lost its tax-exempt status as a non-profit foundation three years ago and has no apparent source of funding. Even its website is shut down.
Sands, too, has a history of financial problems, public records show: seven evictions, one foreclosure, four wage garnishments, five judgments for bad debts, one lien seeking to collect $33,000 in unpaid federal taxes, and one arrest for passing a bad check.
She declined numerous requests for an interview. In an email on Friday, she described Visions Unlimited as “an independent self-funded grassroots initiative.” Earlier, the organization released a statement saying Sands’ son – who served prison time for forgery and is shown on corporate records as the organization’s chief financial officer – would take questions about Myrick on Monday “for 30 minutes only and no longer.”
“All services were provided” to Myrick, the statement said. “He regularly attended sessions, was present for his hours of work obligation as well as his classroom attendance.”
The statement said Myrick did not act inappropriately under the organization’s care.
“Visions Unlimited is not responsible for Jayden or for any of the other students during their personal time spent away from the program.”
‘Visionary’ didn’t keep promises to help violent teenager
That's a problem. He should not have been released to her. At some point people have to start asking do these programs work?
