LA county axes leadership in juvenile detention system over rampant violence, officer morale collapse – LA Probation Dept cuts 14 managers, 13 chief deputies amid struggles with violence and staffing
July 8, 2024
Authorities in Southern California have axed more than a dozen top officials after complaints of violence and injuries from rank-and-file officers in the county’s juvenile facilities.
Los Angeles County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said that 14 top managers would be impacted and 13 chief deputy positions would be eliminated – “an entire layer of management” in the department, which has 6,600 employees.
The impacted individuals were offered positions in other county offices, authorities said.
Sources tell Fox News Digital the shakeup is connected to chaos within the county’s juvenile facilities. Officers have been complaining of increasing violence against themselves and between inmates at the jails for at least the past two years.
Juvenile facilities halt entries as rising populations create challenges for youth and staff
July 6, 2024
OLYMPIA, Wash.- On July 5, Green Hill School in Chehalis and Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie have suspended entries to curb rising populations in juvenile rehabilitation facilities.
According to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families’ decision to stop taking youth comes as officials attempt to stabilize the rising populations and keep both youth and staff members safe and sustainable.
Ross Hunter, the DCFY Secretary responsible for the decision, alerted juvenile, adult, and tribal courts statewide of the decision to suspend intakes at its facilities.
Hunter explains, “When too many young people are concentrated in small spaces it can escalate behaviors and limit the ability for therapeutic rehabilitation,” explained Hunter. “This was not sustainable. Our facilities must be safe, therapeutic, and functional.”
Rising populations have posed challenges to the facilities as more young people are being sentenced for more extended periods.
Report: PA in ‘crisis’ with shortage of juvenile detention beds
May 24, 2024
A new report is sounding the alarm on Pennsylvania’s juvenile-detention capacity challenges, citing understaffing and long wait times for the young people awaiting placement.
The report says five of the 13 youth detention facilities are used by just five counties, and that 57 counties must vie for beds at only six facilities statewide.
Dr. Abigail Wilson, director of child welfare, juvenile justice and education services at the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services, said some counties are forced to send kids hundreds of miles away to find detention space. She noted that more funding could help clear the waitlists and reduce disruption to families and communities.
“Funding impacts the workforce issues,” she said, “and it’s difficult to staff some of these facilities, because the pay doesn’t quite match the need, and the higher level of risk that you take, when you work at a secure detention center.”
Wilson added that it’s also difficult to move a young person into a probation or “step-down” program, since these struggle with understaffing and underfunding. The report notes that detention is meant to provide “temporary, secure and safe custody,” and is used only when less restrictive alternatives have been considered.
Wilson added that it’s also difficult to move a young person into a probation or “step-down” program, since these struggle with understaffing and underfunding. The report notes that detention is meant to provide “temporary, secure and safe custody,” and is used only when less restrictive alternatives have been considered.
Education, skills and rehab focus easing burden on NC juvenile justice system
May 14, 2024
An increasing number of young people are ending up in North Carolina juvenile detention centers. The most recent data – from 2022 – shows 2,591 people were placed in a juvenile detention center, up from 2,423 the year before.
“What we have seen over the last two years is an increase in juvenile crime of about 20 percent, but violent crime was even more increased. We’ve seen an increase of about 24 percent for violent crime,” said William Lassiter, deputy secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and head of the Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The uptick in crime has meant juvenile jails are bursting at the seams. As the number of juvenile offenders climbs, the state is looking at alternatives to crowded detention centers to make sure young people already convicted of crimes can turn their lives around.
In the summer of 2023, there were, on average, more than 80 youths sleeping on juvenile day room floors. Currently, when juveniles in North Carolina are sentenced for a crime, they are sent to a youth development center. . . . A new center in Rockingham County with 60 new beds accommodates those serving time for the most serious crimes, but it is not run like a traditional jail or prison.
“The average kid who comes here is five years behind in education,” Lassiter said. “We have a full school that’s here. We have a full mental health staff.” Every inmate participates in education, and everyone has a job.
Short-Staffed New York Juvenile Facilities Place Detained Youth at Risk, State Investigation Finds
April 5, 2024
Self-harm, drugs and violent incidents have skyrocketed in some of New York’s locked juvenile facilities, a state auditor has found, conditions driven by pandemic-fueled staffing shortages and higher populations following a sweeping reform that shifted older teens out of the adult justice system.
“These facilities are meant to provide safe housing and services to help rehabilitate young people and discourage them from future criminal behavior,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli stated in a Thursday press release. “Unfortunately, staff appears to be overwhelmed and short-handed, which may account for missed or delayed opportunities to provide care for the physical or mental health issues facing the young people in these facilities.”
New York’s Office of Children and Family Services runs nine “residential centers,” which include low- and high-security juvenile lockups for youth ages 12 to 21 found to have committed more serious crimes.
Juvenile Detention Centers Over Capacity in Maryland
The number of complaints for serious and violent crimes filed with juvenile justice is on the rise, state data shows. Over the last few months there have been four young people who have been arrested related to three separate homicide incidents. Three of those suspects were just 14 years old.
“These kids need a voice,” said William Lassiter, the deputy secretary for juvenile justice at the state Department of Public Safety. “They need an advocate; someone that will speak up for them because they don’t have that.”
Lassiter oversees the state’s detention centers, a correctional facility for youth starting as young as 10 who are accused of crimes and considered a public safety risk. As of Tuesday, there were 381 young people in those facilities. That’s 40 more kids than the system can house and a 178% increase since before the pandemic.
Rise in commitments to youth lockups has put most DYS facilities ‘at or over ideal capacity’
Feb. 12, 2024
Most of the facilities that house and treat youths committed to the Arkansas’ juvenile justice division are “at or over the ideal capacity,” according to the state’s Department of Human Services.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/feb/12/dhs-rise-in-commitments-to-youth-lockups-has-put/
Systems in Crisis Report – Council of State Governments
Juvenile justice systems are in crisis. Juvenile corrections and probation agencies have long struggled to recruit and retain front-line staff.1 But since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges have reached unprecedented levels. As a result, public agencies are struggling to provide youth with even basic supervision and services and to safeguard the well-being of their staff and the youth they serve. Staffing shortages extend to public defenders and prosecutors, forcing youth to go without counsel and causing court delays.2 And service providers can’t maintain adequate staffing—with some even going out of business—which results in overcrowding, waiting lists, or leaving youth and families without viable options to get their critical needs met.3
Historically, jurisdictions have adopted short-term, reactive measures to address staff turnover such as hiring bonuses or providing overtime pay.4 However, this Band-Aid approach is not sufficient to mitigate the current crisis, nor will it prevent its recurrence. This brief details findings from a national survey conducted in 2023 by The Council of State Governments Justice Center, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, and University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute, as well as listening sessions with juvenile justice agencies across the country, which reveal the scope and consequences of this crisis.
https://projects.csgjusticecenter.org/systems-in-crisis/systems-in-crisis-brief/