(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/08/2024) In 2022, the Michigan Probate Judges Association documented the case of a girl named Katie, who was removed from an abusive home and placed in a juvenile detention center. Because space wasn't available, Katie spent nine days residing in a courthouse, sleeping on an air mattress.
Katie's case was highlighted by 9th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Namita Sharma of Kalamazoo County, who serves in the family division. She also mentioned the case of a juvenile sexual perpetrator, who was released back into his home with a tether, requiring constant supervision for 20 days until he was able to be relocated to an out-of-state residential treatment facility.
"Courts are downstream, and sadly, we are raising children in our detention centers. What used to be an average of 15 to 30 days, (is) turning into an average of 45 days, with some children categorized as dependency or dual ward children staying in our centers much longer, because there's simply nowhere to place these high-need youth," Sharma told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday, which at the time was discussing the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) budget.
She said putting some juveniles back into their homes isn't always the best option, and could be more damaging if proper intervention – with consistent teams of mental health and social service workers involved – does not take place.
"Clearly a courthouse, sleeping on an air mattress for nine days, is not a proper placement for our children," Sharma said.
She underscored a need for "respite homes" to address juvenile justice concerns as well, creating "temporary cool-down" spaces that can be funded and adequately staffed – with sufficient pay for staff members – to assist youths who "are just being difficult, hot headed . . . perhaps domestic violence, and they need some "mental health treatment . . . and so does the family."
In Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's DHHS budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025, a $38 million appropriation was recommended – with $30.3 million coming from the state's General Fund – to restructure contracts involving residential facilities for juveniles. In particular, the money would be spent on providing "greater revenue certainty" to those contracted with the facilities.
Another $11.9 million – $5.7 million intended to be an ongoing General Fund investment and $5 million instructed to be a one-time General Fund expenditure – would be directed to pre-service screenings for juveniles, to detention diversion programs and to reducing the length of stays within a detention facility.
According to a 2020 report by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), there were 36 recognized facilities – 64 percent of them publicly owned and 36 percent of them privately owned – holding 738 youths for an offense.
A national outlook by Youth.Gov – a federal website on youth support programs and services – claims about two-thirds of youths in detention or a correctional setting in the United States had at least one diagnosable mental health disorder, higher than the general youth population where an estimated nine to 22 percent were affected by at least one diagnosable disorder.
For youths in contact with the juvenile justice system, Youth.Gov relayed reports finding that 76 percent were challenged by a substance-use disorder, 33 percent by high anxiety, 14 percent with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 12 percent with depression, 12 percent with posttraumatic stress disorder and 7 percent with mania.
MIRS spoke with Samantha Gibson, a government affairs associate with the Michigan Association of Counties (MAC), following Tuesday's subcommittee hearing. She highlighted how the average pay for staff members within a detention facility is $18 to $19 hourly, which she said is not sufficient for worker recruitment and retention.
"What you see at the local level, which are court- and county-operated facilities, is an inability to fully staff them, and when they're not fully staffed, you can't have all the beds open and available to be filled," Gibson said, adding that local governments are also overseeing youths who require long-term surveillance and observation at one of Michigan's two state owned and around 21 privately owned residential treatment centers.
But because space isn't available there, high-risk youths are spending lengthy periods of time in short-term facilities, "and then the youth that actually just need short-term detention can't be housed in the court- and county-operated facilities, and so it's this vicious cycle of a staffing and bed shortage that we've yet to resolve."
In terms of this year's budget-making season, Gibson said the MAC is open to any and all additional funding to go directly to county governments to address detention center staff and capacity shortages. Specifically, her association would like to see $3.5 million dedicated to facility staffing.
"I've heard anecdotally many times from members, particularly in Northern Michigan, that they don't have anywhere to send high-risk youths…they're spending days, nights…in emergency rooms and in the courthouses and rooms within the sheriff's office," she said, explaining how if no space within Michigan opens up, the state and local government must split 50-50 the costs to transport them out-of-state.
Wednesday's discussion comes months after Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II signed legislation to reimburse counties at a 75 percent rate from Michigan's Child Care Fund (CCF) for community-based services to juveniles that are not detention-related. Meanwhile, counties can access a 50 percent reimbursement rate for costs to detain a youth following an offense.
Gibson said her association would support increasing the reimbursement rate from 50 percent to 75 percent for detention-based services, in the same way it was raised for community-based services. Yet, she said that at this point: "it's more realistic to expect direct funding to address the staffing shortage than for the state to increase the other side of the reimbursement rate."
A legislator who was a bit concerned about the hearing's focus on detention, as opposed to being more honed in on detention-diversion and non-detention programs, was Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor).
He said that when the Legislature made the change to lift the reimbursement rate for community-based services, it was his hope and expectation – and it continues to be – for county-level judges and their funding units to be "leaning as quickly, and as much as they could, into providing those community-based supports."
"Do you have the data now on how those childcare fund expenses are playing out, such that you can actually tell what is community-based and what is not? And what's your plan to track that going forward over the next few years?" Irwin said. "Because I think we're going to continue to hear from our local government partners saying…'we want more of these resources.' My expectation was the higher reimbursement level would be a big incentive for them. Is it? And how is it playing out?"
From the DHHS' perspective, which oversees the CCF and the deployment of reimbursements, it's a little too soon to track community-based expenditures.
Policy Director Jennifer Peacock of the Michigan Center for Youth Justice told MIRS that counties have a real opportunity to expand their community-based service menus, reinvesting savings into alternatives "that are not only more cost-effective but are proven to yield better results for you compared to confinement."
"The Child Care Fund expansion, combined with the use of both risk and needs and detention screening tools, can ensure we are not over-reliant on detention," Peacock said. "These changes will hopefully ensure that the small percentage of youth who need more intensive treatment can have access to high-quality care."
