JDC resumes admitting youth; budget issues remain
The Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center resumed admitting juveniles on Aug. 26.
The state put the facility on a restricted license earlier this month.
The JDC was not allowed to accept new youth until it met conditions set by the state.
At the time the state restricted the JDC, 19 youth in the facility, according to Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki.
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As of Aug. 25, 10 youth in the facility, JDC manager Jason Severson told County Commissioners during a budget discussion meeting.
One of the state’s conditions to reopen the facility was that it obtain mental health and crisis intervention services.
On Aug. 25, commissioners unanimously approved a contract with River’s Edge Psychotherapy and Forensic Consultation Services, PLLC for services at the JDC.
Racki told The Electric on Aug. 25 that Carman Richard, a compliance specialist with the Montana Department of Corrections, had told him that once that contract was in place, the county would likely be able to reopen the facility by the end of the week.
On Aug. 26, Racki told The Electric that the JDC could accept youth again.
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While the JDC has been restricted, Racki said the county hadn’t had any juvenile cases requiring incarceration until Aug. 25.
During the restriction, youth that the JDC would normally accept under contracts with agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs were sent to other facilities in Missoula, Fort Peck and Lame Deer.
The facility remains on a restricted license with additional reporting requirements, according to the state, but may resume youth admissions.
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State rules require that juveniles incarcerated at the JDC have access to mental health counseling and crisis intervention services, as well as psychiatric, psychological, medical, and other diagnostic services, which may be provided directly by the facility or through a contracted qualified provider.
Commissioners approved a contract on Aug. 25 allowing for Dr. Robert Page, a licensed clinical professional counselor in good standing with the State of Montana Board of Behavioral Health, to provide those services for the JDC.
Under the agreement, the county will pay $80 per hour for therapy sessions and $1,500 per evaluation.
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Page will provide mental health evaluations and therapy treatment on an as-needed basis either by video conferencing or in person at the JDC.
The response times delineated in the contract include:
- non-emergency therapy session: meet with the youth within three business days
- emergency therapy session: meet with the youth within 24 hours
- non-emergency evaluations: meet with the youth within three business days and email a written report to the JDC within five business days
- emergency evaluations: meet with the youth within 24 hours and email a written report to the JDC within five business days
In an Aug. 26 email, Richard emailed county officials stating that DOC had reviewed the county’s documents regarding the required immediate corrective actions, which included: staffing information, daily facility reporting, suicide prevention training and policy acknowledgment, and the executed contract for mental health services, DOC determined the JDC met the immediate requirements to resume youth admissions.
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The restrictive license remains in effect through Oct. 4 to allow the facility sufficient time to complete the remaining requirements of the DOC’s corrective action plan and compliance order.
DOC will continue to monitor compliance and verify completion of the remaining corrective actions, according to Richard’s email, which include, but aren’t limited to:
- daily facility activity reports submitted to DOC as required
- staff schedules submitted to DOC every two weeks
- compliance with applicable same-gender staffing requirements
- continued reporting and documentation of incidents as required
- continued availability of the mental health services established through the executed services agreement; and
- cooperation with DOC monitoring, documentation requests, follow-up inspections, and other compliance verification activities
In early August, Richard, the DOC compliance specialist, sent a letter to the county regarding incidents that had occurred at the JDC from June 18 through July 1 and the facility’s response to those incidents.
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DOC reviewed documents, records and video from the incidents, finding deficiencies related to compliance with state regulations for juvenile detention centers, according to the letter, which included, but weren’t limited to:
- serious incident reporting
- same-gender staffing requirements
- medical and mental health services
- suicide prevention and intervention practices
- administrative oversight and critical incident management
A DOC requirement to resume youth admissions was for the JDC to demonstrate that its 24-hour “emergency medical and mental health services plan is fully implemented and operational, and that staff have been trained on the procedures for accessing those services,” according to the letter.
County officials said the contract for Page’s services satisfied that requirement.
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The issues that prompted the DOC review all involved the same juvenile female with mental health and drug-induced issues, according to Racki, county attorney.
She came into the facility late and no female staff was on duty so she couldn’t be searched properly.
The facility also didn’t have a mental health provider in place at the time.
Racki said the state has requirements for mental health services and that females are on duty, both of which have been ongoing struggles for the facility and aren’t unique to Cascade County
Racki said the JDC reported the incidents and staffing issues to the state, which led to DOC’s admonishment.
“The JDC isn’t a mental health institution,” Racki said, and it’s especially difficult handling juvenile offenders with mental health issues because they can’t be committed to Warm Springs, a state mental health facility, as adults can.
He said the issue arises frequently enough to be a problem and the county works with Benefis Health System, but it’s not an ideal solution.
He said group homes often won’t take the JDC kids with mental health issues, leaving few options for placement. Medical doctors have more options since they can administer medication to address mental health issues.
The JDC is also facing long-term financial issues, which county commissioners have been discussing as they finalize their budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.
During an Aug. 25 meeting, Severson said they’d made progress on invoicing and receiving payments from contract agencies, including BIA.
Trista Besich, county finance officer, said that there’s been an ongoing issue of JDC reporting invoices and payments months after they occurred, complicating budgeting, and a lack of communication.
The county had previously planned a gymnasium construction project at the JDC, which is on hold.
Severson said that a cook at the facility was retiring as of Aug. 25 and the position wouldn’t be filled to reduce costs, but he hadn’t notified remaining staff yet that the role wouldn’t be filled.
He said other staff would be picking up additional duties of currently vacant positions.
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Severson had requested an additional teacher position, but commissioners told him in an earlier budget meeting that request wouldn’t be filled until the existing budget shortfall was addressed.
The admissions pause ordered by DOC also complicates the JDC budget, which is based on an average daily population of 20 juveniles.
Besich asked if Severson had made staffing adjustments or cost-saving measures while running at half the normal population.
Severson said no, but was staffing at the bare minimum.
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Commissioner Eric Hinebauch said during the Aug. 25 meeting that he didn’t want to make adjustments if the facility would resume accepting youth this week, but did want to see regular updates on the average daily population.
He said he wanted the JDC working to get above 20 juveniles in the facility once DOC said they could resume admissions.
Hinebauch said he wanted regular updates from Severson on how other counties and agencies were using JDC services and watching daily population trends.
It will be a “big lift off everybody’s shoulders” when the JDC can resume accepting juveniles, Commissioner Joe Briggs said.
In the meantime, Briggs said, they needed to tighten their financial structure.
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Besich asked Severson to send her last year’s daily population numbers so she could run budget projections for this year’s budget.
During an Aug. 14 JDC budget meeting, Besich said the JDC’s revenues were trending down and had a projected $375,942 deficit for the current fiscal year.
Severson said the facility’s new rates go into effect Sept. 1, increasing the daily fee for regional juveniles from $240 to $255 and for out-of-region juveniles from $260 to $290. That’s the rate charged to other counties sending their juveniles to the JDC.
Besich said the regional increase will be about $15,000 and the out-of-region about $30,000, which is “not going to solve our problem.”
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The county contracts with the BIA at a $260 daily rate.
During the Aug. 14 meeting, commissioners and Besich asked several questions that Severson said he didn’t know the answer to.
Besich said he’d been there a long time and, as the administrator, had to make decisions based on trends.
“The answer cannot be I don’t know,” she said.
Hinebauch said they needed Severson’s opinion on how to close the budget gap and that the facility must be holding fewer juveniles than the trend shows based on the projected budget deficit.
He said the daily population numbers indicate that the JDC needs fewer staff, but he needed to know the minimum staffing requirements.
Besich said revenues have been decreasing over the last five years, from $2.7 million to $2.3 million.
“Right now, the trend is you’re not going to be able to make that up,” Besich said.
Briggs said that there’s a significant increase in expenditures in the proposed JDC budget and “there’s a lot of slop in here.”
He said that the projections needed to be based on last year’s actuals and that he didn’t think the facility’s electric bill was increasing 50 percent this year.
“You need to go through these because, quite frankly, you don’t want me going through them making the cuts,” Briggs said.
County officials didn’t discuss those changes during the Aug. 25 meeting, but have since opened the budget hearing process.
Commissioners are scheduled to conduct a special hearing at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 3 to conclude the public hearing and take action on the budget.
