Section 10. Continuum of Alternatives to Detention at Intake

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1 Section 10 Continuum of Alternatives to Detention at Intake

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3 GLOSSARY Annie E. Casey Foundation A private charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, humanservice reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today s vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities, and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs. Boys and Girls Aid Society The agency contracted to provide community shelter beds for youth who have committed a law violation, but who are in need of a shelter bed in order to be in the community instead of secure detention until their Preliminary Hearing. Community Detention (CD) Previously called Close Street Supervision or Close Supervision, this is a court-ordered 7-day a week program in lieu of detention, designed to be culturally competent, while preserving public safety. Detention Reform Team (DRT) This committee is made up of managers and line staff from across the Juvenile Community Justice Department. DRT includes representation from the various staff units and contract partners. Because the County has tried to take a bottom-up approach to system change, this group is the initiator of most of the organizational reform efforts, specializing in refinements to the Risk Assessment Instrument. DRT members are responsible for the dissemination of information and training of line staff, while soliciting support and feedback. Domestic Violence The criminal charge pertaining to violence among family members involving physical abuse or threatened use of a weapon. Harry s Mother A non-profit agency providing crisis counseling and emergency housing for runaway youth. High-risk youth Youth who score 12 or more points on the RAI or require a Departmental Override to be held in secure Detention due to risks not covered in the RAI. Intake Both the physical space within the Juvenile Justice facility where youth are processed for admission to Detention and the process itself, conducted by Custody Services Intake Counselors. Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) The State agency established to provide temporary custody of delinquent youth adjudicated on a law violation and released to OYA s care. Section 10 Page 3

4 Out Front House The staff secure shelter that Multnomah County contracts with to provide around-the-clock supervision for pre-adjudicated males between the ages of (discontinued in 2004 due to state-wide budget cuts). Preliminary Hearings Shelter hearings held within 36 hours of when a youth is detained, excluding weekends and holidays. Probable cause findings are made at this time, as well as the decision whether or not to detain the youth pending adjudication. Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI) The objective instrument used to determine the level of risk of pre-adjudicated youth. This instrument assesses youths risk of re-offending and/or failing to appear for hearing. The RAI is used in determining detention decisions at both intake and Preliminary Hearings. Runaway youth Any youth that has absconded from guardianship or community supervision. Senate Bill 1 State legislation implemented in 1995 that made many significant changes in the juvenile justice process, including forming the Oregon Youth Authority and implementing Measure 11. Staff Secure Shelter Temporary (up to 28 days) shelter placement with 24 hour staff supervision for pre-adjudicated youth requiring the most secure shelter placement. The Out Front House and are the two contracted shelters providing this service. Status offense Any offense committed by a youth that would not be considered a crime if committed by an adult, i.e. curfew, runaway, possession of tobacco. Volunteers of America of Oregon, Inc. A not-for-profit human services organization that creates partnerships with community leaders, donors, volunteers, and organizations such as the Juvenile Community Justice Department. The VOA provides community tracking for the Community Detention program. Section 10 Page 4

5 INTRODUCTION The following section explains the importance of the development of detention alternatives. This section also provides an overview of the various alternatives to detention available for delinquent youth in Multnomah County. GOALS To recognize the need for community resources which reflect the risk assessment objectives. To discuss how alternatives to detention with different levels of supervision can ensure public safety. To recognize the impact of Multnomah County detention alternatives on secure Detention. To identify the role of data in evaluating the Detention population and the success/failure of the alternatives to detention. To recognize the value of collecting and analyzing information and data to determine current service level availability and identify additional needs. KEY ELEMENTS At the point of Initial Detention Intake Screening: Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI) as Detention Admission Criteria. Summons for Preliminary Hearing, depending upon RAI score and Policies and Procedures. Use of Boys and Girls Aid Shelter Care for youth with a holdable charge and who require family-type shelter care placement in foster home. Use of Staff Secure Shelter Care for youth with a holdable charge and who require the most secure shelter care placement in staff secure shelter care facility. Community Detention/Monitoring resources for youth with a holdable charge and a RAI score with a range of 7 to 11. Section 10 Page 5

6 HISTORY Prior to the implementation of the Risk Assessment Instrument in 1995, Intake Counselors had to make placement decisions based primarily upon Oregon Revised Statutes, their past experience, and personal feelings. This was a difficult position for them to be in, especially considering how few choices they had for proper placement of youth. Objective evaluation standards were lacking in terms of ensuring that youth were being treated fairly and consistently. Additionally, more appropriate resources needed to be developed to address the different levels of supervision required to monitor youth in the community while awaiting trial. Some of these resources are discussed in the following paragraphs. Boys & Girls Aid Community Alternatives Shelter Care (Emergency or short-term housing) When the got underway in 1993, Multnomah County had no available shelter beds to use as an alternative to Detention beds. The County had contracted for shelter beds in the past, but with limited success in collaborating with community-based service providers. With funds now available through the Casey Foundation, the Community Shelter pilot project was created. Multnomah County had already been working with the Boys and Girls Aid Society for years with other types of clients, such as runaway youth, but began contracting with them for Community Shelter beds in This community-based agency provides a limited number of shelter beds. Youth typically spend one night or a weekend in BGAS shelter care. The youth placed there are those who might be detainable according to their risk assessment scores or are special cases such as those involving domestic violence Community Detention/Community Monitoring In the past, Multnomah County operated a program called Close Supervision, the precursor to Community Detention. However, the program consisted of an inconsistent referral process across the Department and undefined contact standards for field counselors. It was therefore used very little as an alternative to detention at Intake. Community Detention monitoring was developed and adapted to fit youth needs, ranging from house arrest to a call-in program. However, Community Detention is only available to youth who have a safe home in which to spend the night. For those youth who do not have a reasonable place to stay in the community but whose cases do not merit being held in the secure Detention facility, Community Shelter is also available. Section 10 Page 6

7 Staff Secure Shelter Care In 1995, Senate Bill #1 divided the responsibility of substitute care placement into two distinct categories: dependent youth and delinquent youth. The State Office of Services to Children and Families (SOSCF) handles dependent youth; Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) handles postadjudicated delinquent youth. A third category is pre-adjudicated youth. Both agencies contend that pre-adjudicated youth are not their responsibilities. SOSCF believes that these youth, at times charged with serious crimes but not yet adjudicated, are inappropriate for the very limited resources they have reserved for dependent, and often younger, children. OYA believes that they have no responsibility to these youth until they are formally adjudicated for a crime. Because of this discrepancy, the population of pre-adjudicated youth continues to be vulnerable to being held in secure Detention while awaiting trial. Staff-secure shelter was designed to better meet the community-based supervision needs for youth requiring placement for more than a few days or more difficult-to-manage youth who might otherwise be considered inappropriate for regular, short-term foster care and therefore held in secure Detention. Funding from the Casey Foundation allowed for the current pilot project which went into effect in early Prior to that, the only shelter alternative was short-term foster homes. These do not have the benefit of awake staff. The availability of staff-secure shelter ties in directly with the long-term Multnomah County Benchmark of Reducing Crime. Best practices and national research show that placing youth in secure Detention when they are high-need, but low risk actually increases the probability of future delinquency. It also still addresses public safety, while still supporting the least restrictive means of supervision. COLLABORATION The Multnomah County Juvenile Community Justice Department recognized the lack of available resources for youth who were in need of supervision but not at the detention level. The County set about to develop, fund, and implement programs for detention alternatives for youth at the point of Detention Intake. The Detention Reform Team (DRT) took on this enormous responsibility. One of the tenets of the is designing community-based alternatives to detention that can achieve the goals of reform. One of these goals includes the philosophy of using the least restrictive means of supervision possible while assuring public safety. Therefore, County decision-makers looked to the local community to Section 10 Page 7

8 determine what resources were already in place, how to tap into those resources, and how to work together with the existing service providers to establish detention alternatives which meet their needs at intake. The following list of providers were in place prior to the Detention Reform Initiative and helped support Multnomah County s reform efforts by expanding their service delivery system to assist the Juvenile Community Justice Department in the supervision of youth placed in the community while awaiting either a preliminary hearing or a trial. Boys and Girls Aid Society Boys and Girls Aid Society is reimbursed on a per diem basis. Generally, there are between 19 and 25 youth admitted per month, with no more than three or four youth under BGAS supervision at any one time. Harry s Mother While there is no formal contract with Harry's Mother, this agency typically works with approximately 5-10 youth a month from the Juvenile Community Justice Department. Out Front House This resource for staff secure shelter was designed to accept up to five male youth at a time. Volunteers of America of Oregon, Inc. s Detention Monitoring Program (Community Detention) Contracted services include client contact and monitoring in the community, as well as transporting youth to staff secure shelter or needed hearings. Harry's Mother, the Boys and Girls Aid Society, and the Detention Monitoring Program are the alternatives primarily used at Detention Intake. The other options are utilized more often as a placement after the preliminary hearing. IMPLEMENTATION When evaluating the types of programs that needed to be established in order to appropriately place youth somewhere other than Detention, it became clear that a range of supervision levels was necessary. The RAI assessed the risks of failing to appear for Preliminary Hearings and of endangering self or the community. Therefore, detention alternatives needed to address the varying degrees of supervision called for by the different levels of risk and need of each youth placed in the community. The Juvenile Community Justice Department and community-based providers have developed and implemented working agreements which assure timely access to alternatives to detention at two decision points in the system at Section 10 Page 8

9 the time of Detention Intake and at the time of the Preliminary Hearing. Role definitions for Department staff have been created and new internal departmental communications systems have been implemented. Each program serves a fairly unique population and requires a specific admissions screening and placement process. The Community Alternatives Shelter Care program with Boys & Girls Aid Society provides youth with the least restrictive environment in which to await their Preliminary Hearings. Foster families who are willing to give youth a temporary home and who are willing to take on the responsibility of making sure that the youth return to court for Preliminary Hearings are contacted through the agency. If it is determined at intake that a youth is in need of a community shelter bed, the Intake staff discusses the option with the youth and also with the parent(s), if available. The Intake staff then calls BGAS for placement. A staff member from BGAS will take preliminary information over the phone, then will come to Detention Admissions and do an intake with the youth. When a placement has been arranged, the BGAS staff will transport the youth to an available foster home. BGAS will also return the youth to a Preliminary Hearing as scheduled. The Community Alternatives Shelter Care program has been used successfully by Multnomah County Juvenile Community Justice Department for the past 5 years. This alternative has demonstrated that it can assure both public safety and the youths appearance at Preliminary Hearings in the least-restrictive environment. This alternative costs a great deal less than secure Detention. In addition, through the use of shelter beds, the Juvenile Community Justice Department manages the limited secure beds more effectively, thus reserving secure Detention for high-risk youth. Through strong collaboration and liaison work, this program has become a solid resource for detention alternatives. As a testament to this program s success, Multnomah County committed financial resources toward its continuation at a higher capacity. On rare occasions, a youth may be placed into staff secure shelter at the point of intake by Detention. These situations usually occur between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., the only hours during which Out Front House, except in emergency situations. The arrangement with the staff secure shelter is that the Detention Intake staff will call the shelter to explain the youth s situation and check that a placement is possible at that time. Detention Intake staff must determine if the Oregon Youth Authority or the State Offices for Services to Children and Family is involved with the particular youth. If so, the staff must arrange with OYA or SCF to transport the youth to the shelter. The Staff Secure Shelter Program provides the most restrictive form of shelter care available, in that youth assigned there are supervised 24-hrs. a day. Staff members watch over youth at all times to ensure that they do not run away or cause any harm to themselves or others. The target population Section 10 Page 9

10 served in this detention alternative consists of both boys and girls between ages 12 to 18 who have been charged with offenses that are detainable by statute. This could include a law violation and/or parole violation charge. Eligible youth are those who could be supervised in an environment less restrictive than Detention and those who have no other shelter or housing resources available to them while awaiting their hearings. This shelter resource is not available for youth with serious gun charges, serious arson charges, or predatory sex offense charges. Normal shelter admissions procedures require that between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Community Detention Monitors are responsible for driving each assigned youth to the appropriate staff secure shelters, walking him/her to the shelter s door, and handing the staff member an information packet. OBSTACLES Community providers work hard to maintain appropriate temporary foster homes, but at times there may not be an appropriate home to meet the needs of a youth. In other situations, a particular youth may have caused trouble at various homes in the past and be on a no take list. In these cases, providers may be unwilling or unable to place the youth, making detention alternatives no longer an option. In the case of the staff secure shelter resource for young men, there has been some concern about how to best manage the difficult needs of shortterm and longer-term populations. Multnomah County continues to evaluate the effectiveness of mixing populations within a single program. THE NEW REFORMED SYSTEM The Multnomah County Juvenile Justice Detention Facility operates a Detention Intake Unit on a seven day/24-hour per day basis and acts as a crisis hotline phone service for the community. The Intake staff is available to answer questions and help resolve conflicts. The staff also sets up Dependency Preliminary Hearings and contacts the Judiciary to obtain emergency hospital commitment if necessary. Along with these duties, Detention Intake personnel receive, screen, counsel, refer, place, and admit eligible and appropriate youth who are brought to the facility. Upon arrival in Detention, youths are brought to the admissions area where they provide basic information so that their guardians can be contacted and the computer information can be updated. Each youth is then asked basic medical questions to determine if any immediate medical attention is necessary. The agency s 24-hour nurse completes a more thorough followup with each youth who is admitted to Detention. All of the youth s personal Section 10 Page 10

11 belongings are inventoried and the youth signs a form noting all of the property being held by the County. Each youth must successfully pass through a metal detector and then stay in a holding cell while waiting for the Intake staff to begin the screening process which will determine if the youth will be admitted to Detention or released. The on-duty Detention Intake staff completes the screening process for each youth. After looking at the charges and reading the police report, the decision is made about whether or not to administer the Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI). The RAI is not used with youth charged with status offenses who are not on probation or are out-of-state runaways. (Please refer to the decision flowchart to see where the RAI is used.) Using a special computer program that automatically records each youth s data in a database, the Intake personnel carefully goes through each component of the RAI, making sure that each youth is assessed consistently and thoroughly. The RAI score must accurately reflect a youth s relative risk of failing to appear for his/her Preliminary Hearing and risk of re-offending if released. The score also indicates what level of supervision is necessary for each youth. If a youth scores below 7 on the RAI, then he/she may be released unconditionally. (If the youth has an otherwise holdable charge and is in need of a housing resource, the Community Alternatives Shelter program may be used. In these cases, the youth will be summonsed back to court for a Preliminary Hearing the next Judicial day.) If the score is between 7 and 11, then he/she may be released conditionally and summonsed back to court for the next judicial day. This range is the one in which most of the alternatives are utilized. The Intake staff also conducts interviews with the youth, parents/guardians, and other interested individuals, possibly including police and youth care agency personnel. Relevant files and reports are evaluated. The staff is able to arrange for most of the juveniles to be released from custody to parents or other placements in which they were housed prior to the current incident. The Intake staff provides the necessary crisis intervention counseling to resolve the situation to such an extent as to enable the youth to return to her/his home or other placement. Some youth cannot appropriately be returned home or to their prior placements. In these situations, the staff must attempt to develop another placement plan. A determination is made with regard to the need for a secure or non-secure custody placement based upon a number of criteria. Detention Intake staff use the RAI and information from available files, or from parents, legal guardians, or self reports to determine whether any other placement is available to better fit the best interest of the youth and the community. Section 10 Page 11

12 If a secure custody placement is needed, the staff must be sure that the youth qualifies to be admitted to the Detention facility according to Oregon law. If the youth is held in the Detention facility, the parents/guardians are notified of the Preliminary Hearing time and the appropriate forms are completed. If a non-secure custody placement is necessary, the staff must decide which is the best available plan for the youth. Plans include releasing the youth on his/her own recognizance to go to a friend s home or somewhere safe such as an overnight shelter, releasing the youth to a responsible person such as a relative or family friend, or placing the youth in the Community Shelter Care program with Boys and Girls Aid Society, or with Harry's Mother. The youth might also be issued a citation to appear for a Preliminary Hearing at a later date. Appropriate forms are completed and recommendations are made for possible follow-up assignments and/or referrals to other agency personnel. DATA-DRIVEN DECISION-MAKING The Juvenile Community Justice Department collects data on the utilization and success rates of the Community Alternatives Shelter Program and the Staff Secure Shelter Program. In the current pilot project, the Juvenile Community Justice Department is holding its contractors accountable for meeting or exceeding the following program objectives: 80% of youth who engage in the program will appear at his/her scheduled court hearing or remain in the program until an alternative housing resource can be obtained. 98% of the youth who engage in the program will NOT re-offend between the time of placement and the scheduled court hearing or until an alternative housing resource can be obtained. Section 10 Page 12