Doña Ana County Officials Eye Possible Youth Jail Closure
By Diana Alba Soular dalba@lcsun-news.com @AlbaSoular on Twitter
LAS CRUCES >> Doña Ana County administrators are eyeing a possible closure of the county's 50-bed juvenile detention facility because of a staffing shortage, sparking a flurry of concerns among local officials.
Doña Ana County Commission David Garcia during a public meeting last week criticized what he said had been a lack of communication from County Manager Julia Brown to commissioners about the proposal.
Officials said a final decision on whether the facility will be closed or not remains up in the air.
State district court judges and the district attorney said the outcome, depending on its specifics, could negatively affect juvenile detainees and their families.
Officer Shortage
Driving the possible closure of the facility, 1850 Copper Loop, is an officer staffing shortage, said county Detention Center Administrator Chris Barela. The shortage, however, isn't at the juvenile facility but rather is at the adult detention center, located next door.
Presently, for the adult facility, 49 vacant officer positions out of 151 that are budgeted — or 1 in 3 available jobs — are vacant. Those numbers exclude command staff.
The adult facility doesn't have mandatory officer staffing levels, Barela said, but there are best practices to ensure safety of officers and detainees. So, in order to meet those on-duty staffing requirements, officers are being forced to work mandatory overtime. But Barela said that takes a toll on personnel by taking away their time with family and their lives outside work.
"We're at a critical staffing level now," he said.
The juvenile facility does have mandated staffing ratios, and the county hasn't had any problem meeting those benchmarks, Barela said. But if that facility was closed, it would free up officers, who then could be transferred to the adult detention center, boosting its personnel roster.
"That would bring me 26 officers immediately, and that's a huge shot in the arm for morale and addressing overtime issues and post assignments," he said.
Concerns Abound
The proposal to close the juvenile detention center sparked a March 6 meeting among 3rd Judicial District Chief Judge Fernando Macias; Judge Marci Beyer, the main state district court judge who deals with youth offenders; County Commissioner David Garcia, County Commissioner Ben Rawson, officials with the Juvenile Probation Office, District Attorney Mark D'Antonio, Doña Ana County Sheriff Enrique "Kiki" Vigil, and public defenders office staff, officials said.
Macias said the news about the county considering a possible closure of the juvenile detention center "did trigger a lot of concern." He understands the need to have a proper staffing levels at the adult and juvenile facilities. But there could be a number of impacts to local juveniles in the justice system and the people who work with them, depending on the county's specific course of action.
"There's concern by the court because people need to discuss these issues before there is a final determination," he said.
Several of the attendees said they had concerns about one of the solutions being vetted by the county: sending juvenile detainees to another detention center in the state. Gallup was a consideration, a drive of several hours from Las Cruces. Some officials, including Garcia, said they were caught off-guard by the drastic proposal.
"The message of closing the (juvenile) detention center was never made obvious in my mind," Garcia said during a county commission meeting Tuesday.
D'Antonio said he understands the difficult seat Brown is in balancing the county's needs. But he's opposed to transporting youth detainees to another county. That would negatively affect them and their families, their attorneys — who'd have a more difficult time meeting with them — and others involved in the process. In addition, D'Antonio said there are strict time lines that must be adhered to in juvenile cases, which would be hindered if they're required to be housed outside Doña Ana County.
Macias, too, said time lines are strict.
"Juvenile cases are different from adult criminal cases, so there has to be a much quicker turnaround, especially if people are in custody," he said.
Macias, who is also a former Doña Ana County manager, said he started the county manager's job in 1997 at a time when the county was struggling to comply with a rule that requires separation of adult and juvenile detainees. The county was able to get financing that led to the construction of the juvenile detention center. Surrounding counties also have relied upon it over the years.
"It really does provide not only a local resource, but it's also a regional resource," he said.
The juvenile detention facility was built in 2000, and it opened in 2001, according to the county's website.
Communication gap
Garcia also said he was concerned about a lack of information given to Vigil and said the county's human resources process didn't seem to be yielding enough candidates to fill detention center and sheriff's department vacancies, something that should be reviewed.
"In my opinion, the board of county commissioners needs to have a stern discussion with our county manager concerning the following points: explore all the options before closing the juvenile detention center, improving communications with DASO, informing stakeholders on important declarations or decisions of the county, such pointing case as with the courts and JPO's office, exploring further the impression our HR is broken, whereas the sheriff's department wants its own HR department," he said.
After Garcia's remarks, Brown said she wanted to "clarify the record" regarding the juvenile detention center's status, noting it hasn't yet been closed. She also said she notified county commissioners in March 3 work session about having told Barela to evaluate options tied to the center.
"I directed the director to explore and investigate the cost of transporting certain elements of the detention center to other facilities within the state and to also look at the options with respect to those, such as transport," she said.
Garcia said Macias sent a "very clear" message to the county, saying the staffing problems with the detention center should have been known "long beforehand."
Barela said the detention center has been trying to solve the staffing shortage problem for the last few months. But it recently became clear "we're not going to get ahead of it."
"And it's become critical in my opinion," he said.
Vigil said his department arrests juveniles who've been accused of crimes, and there must be a facility nearby where they can be taken. In addition to not being alerted about the possible closure of the youth detention center, Vigil said he was concerned about an idea to require the sheriff's department to transport juvenile detainees to other facilities in the state — something he said he can't afford to do.
"I'm short manpower," Vigil said. "Where am I going to get the manpower?"
Rawson last week asked for the juvenile detention center to be added to an upcoming meeting agenda as a discussion item.
Brainstorming
Brown said that after the March 6 meeting, she agreed "we'd hold off for two weeks on making any decision on closure of any portion of the detention center so we would have the opportunity to look at possible solutions that might be submitted by the courts by the juvenile probation department ... and other stakeholders who were in attendance at that meeting."
Macias said he's been in ongoing discussions with county officials looking for possible short-term solutions to the problem. One may be to ask the state's Children Youth & Families Department, which contains the Juvenile Justice Services division, for a waiver to the requirement for housing youth and adult detainees in different buildings. Such a move would require detention center policies that would maintain "sight and sound separation" of adult and youth inmates.
Asked if a waiver was a possibility, CYFD spokesman Henry Varela declined to say.
"We are aware that the Dona Ana County administration is currently exploring their options regarding the Dona Ana County youth detention facility," he said in an email Friday. "To our knowledge, no final decision has been made by the county on this issue. When a final decision is made, CYFD will work with the county within our authority to find an appropriate solution.
In addition, Macias said the courts are working with the county to see if there are ways to improve the flow of adult detainees out of the detention center.
That move could reduce the adult jail population, lowering the number of detention center officers needed at a given time.
D'Antonio said another possibility is determining whether other law enforcement, possibly retirees, who could serve as detention center officers to boost the adult detention center's personnel roster. Barela said an idea is to turn to department of corrections personnel, who staff state prisons, to fill in shifts.
"We're exploring all options," Barela said. "We certainly don't want to close down the juvenile facility and create an imposition on the community."
While there may be a short-term fix put in place, Macias said he supports having both the adult and juvenile detention centers running.
"Long-term, I'm hoping we're going to have two viable facilities in the county."
Long-term fix?
The average population of detainees at the adult detention center has actually declined in recent years, Barela said. These days, there's an average population at any given time of about 700 adults — down from the 850 to 900 people of years past.
Barela said part of that is D'Antonio's administration at the district attorney's office has cleared a backlog of detainees, along with district court judges and the public defender's office personnel, who've been proactive in addressing cases. Now, there are only about a dozen people who've been in the jail longer than a year. Previously, there were people who'd wait five to six years waiting for their cases to be resolved.
In spite of that population decline, the county is still having trouble filling officer positions at the adult facility.
"It's not really an inmate population problem; it's a staffing problem," he said.
Barela said there is high turnover among detention officers at the center, and the job is stressful. Pay also factors in. Now, a starting officer earns $11.51 per hour during a probationary employment period. After the probation, the pay level increases to $13.24 per hour, which is "not a bad rate, but it's not where we need to be."
"It's a tough job," he said. "So once people do it for a bit, they say: 'It's a much harder job than I thought it was going to be for the compensation.' Then they move on to something else."
Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 574-541-5443.
