Not many bars, but youth facility still jail

Don't expect to see many bars or chains inside the Southeast Juvenile Detention Facility, but make no mistake about it. This place is still a jail. Juveniles, mostly 16- and 17-year-olds but some as young as 12, march in groups supervised by detention officers. The best-behaved wear red shirts. The worst-behaved wear white and generally remain in lockup. No longer under the influence of drugs, the inmates do surprisingly well in classes where it's not uncommon to see first- and second-grade reading levels.

“It was an eye-opener for me,” said Kim Sevier, a program manager who arranges self-help classes, including self-esteem and anger management. “We're talking first-, second- and third-grade reading levels. We try to work with them every day for a week.”

The $22 million facility was dedicated in January but wasn't fully operational until August because of building defects and staffing shortages at the site at 1810 E. Lewis St. near Baseline Road and Mesa Drive. The small but well-organized library is strangely busy, mostly because there is little else for inmates to do but read at night. Television is reserved for news and educational purposes.

“They say that all the time: I never read until I came in here,” said librarian Judy Worthen, who is especially short on books and biographies in Spanish. “It takes them away from their problems.”

Many detainees have been expelled from school or ditch classes regularly, but they don't have any choice but to attend while incarcerated, said Cherie Townsend, Maricopa County's chief juvenile probation officer.

“We expect to change behavior here,” said Townsend, showing off the newly expanded facility's Spartan jail cells. “It isn't a hotel. It's a secure facility.”

She said the facility is proud of a low recidivism rate: 72 percent of detainees never return. The average length of stay is 16.8 days, with 40 percent spending only 48 hours and others remaining incarcerated for six months while they await residential placement, Townsend said. Repeat offenders generally move on to the state Department of Juvenile Corrections if four to six stays in detention don't make an impression or they commit more serious offenses, she said. One telling statistic is that about 60 percent of incoming juveniles test positive for drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, crack cocaine and cocaine, she said. The delay in moving into the jail was partly because of the fact a contractor installed the wrong type of windows along a courtyard and a couple cracked, said Jim Marvin, director of detention services. About 20 needed to be replaced.

The county also needed to aggressively recruit staff to open the facility, she said.

“We try to get staff that's not punitive,” said Derrick Platt, detention manager. “We try to get staff that is caring and nurturing.”

Townsend said one of the primary security issues is preventing juveniles from harming themselves. Even pencils used in classrooms are collected when each class ends. When the new facility finally opened, the county's number of Mesa juvenile cells nearly doubled, to 248 from 128, relieving chronic overcrowding in the southeast Valley, Townsend said. Most East Valley residents probably don't realize the facility even exists, Marvin said. The innocuous low-slung building sits behind juvenile court near Baseline Road and Mesa Drive. The 96,000 square-foot building is the first of a series of new jail facilities financed by voters when they approved a one-fifth-cent sales tax increase in 1998 and extended it in 2002. Townsend said the facility is staffed to accommodate no more than 178 juveniles. That leaves room for future growth and encourages community-based alternatives to jail, such as residential treatment. It includes a gymnasium with new basketball courts and a courtyard where juveniles with good behavior records will soon play soccer and volleyball. Marvin said exemplary behavior might even be rewarded eventually with barbecues in the courtyard.

By the numbers A snapshot of the Southeast Juvenile Detention Facility on Dec. 1, 2003, showed:

178 detainees, 145 male.
91 Anglos, 58 Hispanics, 22 Blacks, four Native Americans, three other.
The majority — 138 — were ages 15 to 17; 28 were age 14; 10 were age 13; two were age 12.
The largest number, 41, were being held on felony charges.
There were 39 held on probation violations, the second-largest group.
Ten weeks was the longest time any detainee had been held.

Source: Southeast Juvenile Detention Facility.