County asks for help with juvenile detention
10 people being sent to Fairfield County
A staffing shortage at the Franklin County juvenile detention center is being cited as the reason why the county's Juvenile Court judges have transferred 10 youths to a detention center in Fairfield County.
The move was approved by the court's seven judges on Nov. 8, a court order shows, and the transfers occurred two days later.
Although the workforce at the Franklin County facility has been well below full staffing for months, a recent increase in the number of juveniles in custody led to safety concerns, according to county court administrator Robert Vaughn.
The average daily population in the facility on South Front Street had grown to more than 90 in recent weeks, the highest since 2014, Vaughn said in an email response to a series of questions from The Dispatch.
“That population level, combined with lower staffing levels, created concerns regarding safety for both youth and staff and makes it more difficult to get the youth to daily activities such as school,” he wrote.
“One year ago, with about the same staffing levels, we had an average daily population in the low 60s,” Vaugh said.
Franklin County Juvenile Court has worked for the past decade to find alternatives to incarceration for all but the most-serious youth offenders. As a result, the average daily population at the county detention center fell from nearly 100 in 2010 to a low of about 53 in 2019.
In May of 2020, amid a COVID-19 outbreak at the detention center, the
court’s administrative judge ordered the release of eight youths to house arrest with electronic monitoring devices to reduce the facility’s population. By late June, two had been accused of violent gun crimes, and the others eventually removed their ankle monitors and went AWOL.
Vaughn denied that any particular incident at the detention center triggered the latest safety concerns.
Transfers from the detention facility haven’t occurred in recent memory. Vaughn said he thinks the court has transferred juveniles out of the county “at least once in the past, but it was many years ago.”
The court has budgeted for 147 fulltime employees at the detention center, but just 88 of the positions are filled.
“We are experiencing the same labor market pressures as any other business or governmental entity,” Vaughn wrote. “Our (full-time employees) are actually up slightly over this time last year, so we have been holding steady despite the tight market.”
In an effort to lure applicants, the judges late last year raised starting pay for corrections personnel, referred to as intervention specialists, to $19.79 an hour from $17.79. A cost-of-living increase this year pushed the starting rate to $20.19 an hour.
As of Monday morning, the population at the detention center was 80, he said.
The Multi-county Juvenile Detention Facility in Lancaster was continuing to hold the 10 youths from Franklin County, and can take as many as 12 if needed, Vaughn said.
Franklin County court is paying $105 a day for each juvenile housed in Fairfield County.
“We can cover the cost with funds that are budgeted for (detention center) employees but not used due to vacancies,” Vaughn wrote.
Franklin County also has an arrangement under which it can transfer up to five juveniles to the Clark County Detention Center in Springfield.
The Ohio Administrative Code requires minimum staffing ratios of one staff member for every 12 juveniles during waking hours and one staff member for every 25 juveniles during sleeping hours.
“There is no concern about OAC minimum staffing requirements,” Vaugh said of the transfers. “The concern is more serving the kids as best we can — continuing to provide educational and enrichment opportunities while they are detained.”
Most of the juveniles held in the detention center are awaiting the resolution of their cases and are charged with delinquency offenses so serious that they are seen as potential safety threats if released into the community.
“One of the reasons that the population has gone up is that we have a number of youths whose cases are concluded and are awaiting transfer” to Ohio Department of Youth Services juvenile prisons, according to Vaughn.
“Those facilities are also facing staffing challenges, so many of the transport dates have been delayed,” he wrote.
A spokesman for the state Department of Youth Services said the agency is awaiting the arrival of five juveniles from Franklin County who are scheduled to arrive by the end of November.
Full staffing for the state’s three youth prisons is a combined 421 positions, but the current staffing level is 360, Tony Gottschlich, communications chief, said in an email.
“While we have half of a unit (out of six units) closed at our Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility due to staffing, it does not stop admissions,” Gottschlich wrote.
The admissions process for state facilities has been delayed by the COVID pandemic, he said, with juveniles being tested and quarantined for seven days before being transferred from county facilities.
Staffing shortages have plagued a number of juvenile detention facilities around the state.
Cuyahoga County raised starting pay for officers at its juvenile detention center last month to $24 an hour, up from just over $18, in an effort to attract more staff.
The shortage at Cuyahoga County was blamed in part for an August disturbance at the facility in which juveniles damaged ceiling tiles and broke a window and a TV. The youths reportedly were upset because of lengthy lockdowns caused by staff shortages. jfutty@dispatch.com @johnfutty