Focus of youth correction should be community based
Carol Carlan is member of the Pensacola Junior College Board of Trustees, former president of Wachovia Bank in Pensacola, and has worked with the PACE Center for Girls, a non-residential treatment center for girls at risk of dropping out of school, for 15 years. She was appointed to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Blueprint Commission on Juvenile Justice by Gov. Charlie Crist.
She talked with Opinion Editor Carl Wernicke about the commission's report, issued last month.
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Question: How did serving on the Blueprint Commission impact your view of the juvenile justice system?
Answer: One, you have the Department of Children and Family Services, you have the Department of Juvenile Justice and you have Department of Corrections. And it was clear to me that those are three separate entities that take care of our youth ? and don't collaborate. We're trying to take care of kids at the state level, and have gotten away from community-based prevention programs and taking care of our children on a more local basis.
Q: That's a criticism across the board, isn't it, when it comes to social services?
A: Absolutely. And through this entire commission process it is coming back to (considering) community-based needs. We also saw that we didn't have an accountability system in place, a good solid evaluation system for outcomes, and holding these departments accountable.
Q: What else jumped out at you about juvenile justice?
A: Several key things were some of the statistics. Analysis shows juvenile crimes are actually going down in Florida. However, out of the 90,000 juveniles who were referred to the Department of Juvenile Justice, 70,000 were first-time offenders. That jumped out clearly as something that was just not balanced.
Another part of that is that we spend roughly $2,000 on a child for prevention services ? and $42,000 on incarceration and detention. Less than 10 percent of the $703 million budget is spent on prevention. That jumped out to me as a "get tough" but not necessarily smart system. Somehow we've gotten out of balance and we're not spending time with these children on the front end with prevention.
Q: What's the impact of that?
A: We're filling detention facilities, and what we're seeing is that crime is going down but the felony charges, the more serious crimes, like manslaughter, are increasing. So at-risk children are getting further into the system, and the further into the system they go, the worse the crime.
Q: The commission found high turnover among detention officers. Why?
A: Pay. It's clearly pay. It was in every public hearing throughout the entire state, it was pay, pay. Plus, the average age of these detention officers is 19. They're very young, and they can move over to the Department of Corrections and get an immediate raise. You'll see in the recommendations that that whole area is one we think is a priority ? pay. But they need to be compensated on outcomes.
Q: Average age 19 ? isn't that a clear signal that starting pay is low?
A: Absolutely. It's very low, and their increases, even over a two- or three-year period, aren't very much. There is over 50 percent annual turnover, and they leave within the first six months. Think about what that lack of continuity does to a child who starts with an individual (caseworker) ... they might have two or three caseworkers during that time.
Q: One finding was that at the current pace all juvenile residential lockups will be full within five years. What's the answer?
A: First, you've got to make sure they don't get in the system to begin with. Zero tolerance has caused a lot of problems. Zero tolerance is an issue that needs to be dealt with statewide.
Q: What's the problem with zero tolerance?
A: As I see it, it is misinterpreted, and it is miscommunicated. To resolve that we have to have good communication and education throughout the system, and we have to put the appropriate safety measures in place so that individuals aren't turned over to law enforcement unless it's warranted.
Q: So some kids entering the justice system ought to be in some other track?
A: Absolutely. Zero tolerance, if you remember, goes back to the murders on the interstate (at an I-10 rest stop in 1993, when a British tourist was killed and another injured near Monticello in a robbery by four teens) and (the mass shooting at) Columbine; it was put in place to deal with hard-core crime and weapons within the school system.
But (now) you're having law enforcement called for minor events. I'm not saying there aren't issues police have to deal with, but we heard testimony throughout the state where kids were being arrested because there was a tantrum thrown, kids doing kid things where law enforcement should not be brought in.
Q: How did we get to this point?
A: I truly believe that when things are going well we don't pay attention, we change our focus; I think we got here by not really paying attention to what was happening to our youth. What really works? Small, community-based programs. Somehow we got away from that. Putting children out of the community in a facility that's not close to home, doesn't have support, they are not getting proper health treatment or education? That's not going to turn out a productive citizen.
Also, it has to be performance based. The PACE Center for Girls is a perfect example. If they get a dollar they should be able to show they had the outcome to get that dollar the next year. That's how the DJJ has to run. And that evaluation system has not been in place.
Q: A lot of these services have been privatized. Do you think that's part of the problem?
A: No. As a matter of fact, we need more. Prevention-based programs, which are all privatized, have some of the greatest outcomes. But they are less than 10 percent of the budget.
Q: How are the current state budget woes impacting this?
A: It's tough. Obviously everyone wants more money, so in a time like this you have to look at priorities, and I think this is helping the DJJ refocus on what its priorities needs to be.
Q: What about locally?
A: We have to do some work in our back yard as well. First, we need to identify all the resources we have here. We have wonderful programs ... but we heard over and over again, "I have a child that needs help, I don't know where to go. What resources do we have?"
First thing I thought was we don't have a local directory on all the wonderful services we have. Second, we need to pull all the stakeholders together. I know these groups talk, but we need to pull all the groups together ... and we need to say how does this apply to Pensacola, what are our issues, what are our trends, and let's put us on a scorecard. That information is out there, we pay for it, we ought to use it.
17 February 2008
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/OPINION/802170306/1020