A turnaround of the county's troubled juvenile temporary detention center will take at least two years, transitional administrator Earl Dunlap told members of the county's criminal justice committee today.

Dunlap, who was appointed transitional administrator for the juvenile home in August, has already witnessed several violent incidents among residents and sky-high absenteeism among the staff.

He unveiled plans for handling both issues during a public hearing Wednesday in front of the county board's Criminal Justice Committee.

Dunlap said the violence issue is being handled by reducing the opportunities for children to interact during school sessions at the center. The roughly 440 residents of the center are being taught in their individual pods instead of shuttling from classroom to classroom.

The change was made in response to a near riot at the facility on Feb. 18 in which dozens of children and staffers were injured during a Black History Month presentation.

Forty-five children and 10 staff members were treated at the center's infirmary following the incident, a JDC spokeswoman told the Chi-Town Daily News.

"We have stopped school as it was in the past," Dunlap said Wednesday. "Safety was jeopardized. When 400 kids roll into one area, you're going to have trouble. But school is not closed. Four hours a day, teachers go to the pods."

County officials are still investigating what happened during the incident.

Dunlap said the morale of the center's staff, already 150 people short of the 550 needed for a full staff, is also taking a beating in the form of absenteeism.

He told commissioners that employees took a total of 715 sick days between Jan. 1 and March 31. Dozens more have taken leaves of absence or filed claims that they were injured while on duty.

"At one point, I got fed up and went to federal court, and the federal court suspended the union's collective bargaining agreement until we make changes," Dunlap said.

That move, which Dunlap said was not an attempt to break up the union, has not improved absenteeism. As a result, residents are often confined to their cells all day because there is not enough staff to supervise them.

"Unfortunately, in that situation the people who suffer are the kids," Dunlap said.

Help is on the way, though Dunlap is not entirely happy with the source.

Up to 20 security guards from Wackenhut Corporation, a national firm, will soon join the staff to monitor public areas.

"I have been an adversary of theirs for some time," said Dunlap. But the scope of their authority is very limited. They will not engage with the kids."

Wackenhut employees will have to complete an 80-hour training session at the center, as well as undergo extensive background checks.

Dunlap said the newly-refined process for bringing in new staff will soon allow the center to hire additional staff. A field of 160 for a juvenile counselor position has been pared down to 17, and hiring should be complete within 60 days, he said.

Commissioner William Beavers (D-Chicago) criticized Dunlap for failing to bring in staff more quickly. But Dunlap said the long hiring process is necessary to ensure the right people are brought in.

"We are not going to bring in warm bodies and dead bodies, Commissioner," Dunlap said. "We have a process in place."

Chief Judge Timothy Evans, whose court is partnered with the JTDC, said there are alternative measures that could be taken to divert some non-violent children away from the detention center, but a policy and increased budget would be needed to put it in place.

Dunlap said the job of cleaning up the JTDC will not be quick, but he believes it can be done.

"There's been an awful lot to get done," he said. "It will take two years to get fairly stabilized if we do it the right way instead of the quick way. I think the community will have a detention center to be proud of, to the point anyone can be proud of a detention center."

Comments

Please log in or register to post your comment.