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Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center closed due to staffing shortages

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Illinois

The judge responsible for the administration of a troubled juvenile detention center in rural southern Illinois abruptly moved to close it as of Dec. 31, citing staffing shortages that made it difficult to meet new state standards governing the treatment of youth in custody.

The Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center had been featured in a November report by Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica that exposed the state’s lax enforcement of its own standards, despite audits that repeatedly found poor conditions at the facility. […]

Those standards were updated by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in 2021; the changes aimed to improve education and mental health services for detained youths, and to limit the use of restraints and seclusion, or locking kids alone in their cells for hours. But in an inspection the following year, the state agency described the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center as a “facility in crisis”: It did not provide the required mental health care, schooling and recreation for the children in custody, and staff locked youth in their rooms for up to 24 hours for behavioral infractions or because of short staffing. Facilities are only allowed to use seclusion to prevent someone from harming themselves or others. […]

Despite these mounting concerns, the closure of the Benton detention center took some county officials, state lawmakers and employees by surprise. One longtime employee told county officials during a Tuesday night board meeting that staff were “blindsided” by the announcement four days before Christmas.

* WSIL…

Chief Judge Melissa A. Morgan made the announcement on Friday stating the facility will cease operations effective December 31 due to staffing shortages.

In a statement passed along by the Second Judicial Circuit’s administrative assistant, they said the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center has always been committed to providing the best services for youth entrusted in its care and that commitment has never wavered. The pursuit to meet mandated enhanced programming goals and the enactment of new legislation related to confined juveniles will require greater staffing in juvenile detention. Unfortunately, like many other businesses and entities throughout the state, workforce shortages have become increasingly difficult to manage.

“While the facility has made tremendous strides in delivering services, the totality of circumstances in these challenging times necessitates closure. I believe this course of action is in the best interest of the juveniles, staff, and communities we serve,” Chief Judge Morgan said.

* WJBD…

The Marion County Sheriff’s Department is one of the counties utilizing the Benton facility. Sheriff Kevin Cripps says the Benton facility has been dealing with staff shortages that kept them from accepting many juvenile offenders last year. As a result, the county entered into a similar agreement to house juveniles in the Madison County juvenile detention facility in Edwardsville. He fears with the closure of Franklin County, the Madison County facility could become overwhelmed which would result in the need to help another backup facility. Cripps says that would most likely be further away increasing travel time to deliver and pick up juveniles.

In the long run, Cripps feels the county judicial system may have to look at options other than incarceration in some cases. The county can only hold juveniles in the county jail for up to seven hours.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Jan 8, 24 @ 12:34 pm

Comments

=Unfortunately, like many other businesses and entities throughout the state, workforce shortages have become increasingly difficult to manage.=

I know where they could get some people who are probably dying to get to work.

If the Pritzker administration put its foot down and demanded federal assistance to vet people for work permits, and then offered to subsidize housing for any business, town, or county who hired the new comers for say 6 months max, we could solve a lot of worker shortages in Illinois.

Imagine fully staffed jails and prisons, restaurants, stores etc. WHat a massive win this could be. And sticking it to Texas would be just a bit of icing on the cake.

I know there are more moving parts than I described, but I bet the president would take a call from our governor.

What if we told Texas to send them all to us? How awesome would that be?

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jan 8, 24 @ 1:44 pm
Not saying it explains everything, but tier II pensions are going to be a longterm hurdle for hiring qualified state workers going forward.

Comment by Ole' Nelson Monday, Jan 8, 24 @ 3:56 pm
Ole’ Nelson,
I think you’re right. When I was in HS the saying was you went into private industry to get $$ and you went into public service to have a decent retirement. Now public service doesn’t really offer much anymore.

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Jan 8, 24 @ 4:52 pm