Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Former employees ask Detention Board for help
About two dozen employees of the Lima Juvenile Detention Center packed a recent meeting.
About two dozen employees of the Lima Juvenile Detention Center packed the inaugural meeting of the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Board of Managers Tuesday asking for help.
“About a month from now, all of us have to find a new job,” Lima detention center employee Ryan Cannon of Swarthmore said. “You guys keep saying you’re worried about us, why can’t you place us in the county? There’s thousands of jobs in the county but you can’t place us in the meantime ... We should be paid or be put somewhere. A month from now, we won’t have benefits, we won’t have a job, we won’t have nothing.”
Unemployment ends at the beginning of September for Cannon and about 45 of his co-workers who lost their jobs after Common Pleas Court President Judge Kevin F. Kelly closed the facility March 12. The facility lost its state license after allegations of physical, sexual and psychological abuse were alleged by Delaware County Public Defender Chris Welsh and First Assistant Public Defender Lee Awbrey. Those allegations are under investigation by the state Attorney General. No finding or ruling has yet been made.
On Tuesday, the 10-member Juvenile Detention Board met for its very first time, setting up Kevin Madden as chairperson, Marie N. Williams as vice chairperson, considering by-laws and setting up human resources and facilities subcommittees. However, the bulk of the meeting was spent listening to the concerns of employees from the Lima detention center, whose jobs were impacted when the facility shut down.
“What direction is this board leaning in in terms of us having a job and returning to work?” Dennis Bailey of Chester asked. “Because as it stands now, these are still allegations and accusations. We’re six months in and we haven’t heard anything about the investigation. Quite frankly, our families are paying the price.”
He shared the concern of himself and his co-workers.
“I need my job just like everybody else in here needs their jobs,” Bailey said. “They are concerned if all of these accusations and allegations aren’t proven, then we’ve been put out of work for no reason at all and no fault of our own.”
Fellow center employee Chris Thomas of Morton agreed.
“Lives have been turned upside down totally because of this unfortunate situation,” he said. “It seems like things had been moving at a county level in more of a direction of getting away from what we do and what we’ve done for decades ... No one has said anything to us about any of us retaining our jobs. We’re not hearing anything about being retained in any form or fashion or even if that’s on the table.”
Madden said he wished he had more information to share but didn’t. He explained that the investigation is in the hands of the
state Attorney General’s Office. William Martin, who was serving as acting board solicitor, said the county had inquired to the status of the investigation but the Attorney General was unwilling to give an update.
“Nobody wants limbo,” Madden said. “We get that. We are trying to understand the facts as they are as quickly as we are ... The Attorney General’s investigation is a key component of that. I think it’s hard to really … move too far forward with anything while there’s a pending investigation by the Attorney General.”
Board member Chris Eiserman said the county needs a secure detention facility.
“I’ve been a police officer for 23 years,” he said. “I deal with juveniles just like you do. I have respect and admiration for you guys … I know you guys have been assaulted not just physically but verbally.”
He said he implored county council and county government to reach out to these employees and try to come to some kind of resolution for them and their jobs, including better communication.
Board member Chekemma J. Fulmore Townsend cautiously explained that the Juvenile Detention Board does not have the authority to make individual employment decisions - however they were committed to finding out how to improve the communication with these employees.
“What you have is a sympathetic ear,” she said. “You have people who are concerned and you have definitely been heard and felt … Your perspective is really important.”
The Lima employees expressed confusion.
“I’ve never in my life heard of an investigation where the whole entire facility got fired,” Jacob Halderman of Broomall said. “We all lost our jobs and with it, come our benefits. People’s families depend on that.”
He spoke of his co-workers who’ve worked 25 years and how many of them worked 80 to 100 hours a week.
“I’ve been here one year,” Halderman said. I made $13 an hour ... I had poop thrown in my face. It got in my mouth. I was picking bits of it out of my beard. It had period blood in it too and urine.”
He added that that was by a resident who should have been placed in a facility that had capabilities for individuals who require mental health care.
Halderman also questioned why some were still working but others weren’t.
“You have people who have been directing this department for years who still have their job, who are still making their paycheck, who still have their benefits,” he said. “Then, you have people in here who are working their a—— off and something that was completely unrelated to them, had nothing to do with them and they’re losing everything because of it.”
Lifelong Chester resident Charles Tull Sr. spoke of how the detention center impacted him.
When he was younger, he had been locked up in the center.
“It started my life on the right track,” Tull said.
When he got older, he went to work at the facility and a few years ago, was ready to quit because of how he was being treated by the kids.
“My mother sat me down and she was like, ‘Look, you can quit but, you know, sometimes kids need somebody from that community,’” Tull said. “And I stayed.”
He asked the board about the future.
“What do we do from here?” Tull asked. “You all can put these kids back out on the street but if they’re not getting the treatment that they need, …. they come back to my community. We can do social justice reform but we also have to keep the community in mind and the people that are going to suffer the most are in my community.”
Besides Madden, Williams, Eiserman and Townsend, the other members of the Juvenile Detention Board of Managers include Elaine Paul Schaefer, Dr. Monica Taylor, Joanne Phillips, Candice L. Linehan, Christine RicksFletcher and Judge Nathaniel C. Nichols. The board plans to meet every third Tuesday of the month at 4:30 p.m. in the County Council Meeting Room at the Government Center in Media.