Should City Fund Part of New County Juvenile Justice Facility?

A discussion around the supposed “revolving door” justice system where teenagers are repeatedly stealing cars with little long-term punishment is growing into a larger effort to improve Milwaukee’s juvenile justice system.

“What became very clear to me is that this became much more complex than that one issue,” said Alderman Michael Murphy to members of the Public & Safety Health Committee on Thursday. He chaired an intergovernmental reckless driving force and has pushed for follow-through on its myriad recommendations.

Thursday’s meeting, which involved council members, city and county administration officials, District Attorney John Chisholm and Chief Judge Mary E. Triggiano, was spurred after Murphy received a letter from a retired juvenile probation officer that identified a series of perceived issues with the system.

“The purpose of this meeting is not to point fingers, you see that all too often in government, but to identify solutions,” said Murphy. “I think we all have recognized in the last several years that the system is not working.”

He has one such idea: develop a juvenile reception center where at-risk youth and their families can be evaluated and be connected with supportive services.

Individuals could be referred by their parents or guardians, counselors, teachers, child welfare caseworkers and police officers.

Murphy said he would support using some of the city’s federal American Rescue Plan Act grant (half of the original $394.2 million remains) to fund a portion of the facility. The county, which handles youth corrections in Milwaukee, recieved $183.7 million in ARPA funding.

The leaders of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are conceptually on board with the idea as part of a broader strategy to develop a local youth corrections facility so the county would not have to send youth to a state-run corrections facility far away from their families and communities. The current state youth detention facilities, Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, are north of Wausau.

“What we found is about 60% of the youth we serve in the justice system have an undiagnosed cognitive or behavioral issue,” said DHHS deputy director David Muhammad. He said he believes that if those issues were addressed earlier a number of the later criminal issues could be avoided.

The department performs a “detention risk assessment instrument” for all youth brought to its Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center. But those evaluated on the instrument’s five risk factors are only there via one source. “All youth who are brought to detention are brought to us through law enforcement,” said interim administrator for children and family services Kelly Pethke.

Youth awaiting trial are evaluated through a continuum of care approach for where they will be held, whether it’s released to a parent, at an alternative to detention program (shelter) or in a detention facility. If they are sentenced, depending on the crime, the county could send them to Lincoln Hills (or Copper Lake for girls). But at a steep cost.

Muhammad said the current detention cost is $400,000 per youth annually or $1,154 per day. The deputy director said that is expected to grow. Sending three youth to the facility is the cost equivalent of serving 100 youth locally, he said.

“The issue is the outcomes,” said Murphy. He said he understood the recidivism rate to be 80%. A 2017 report pegged it at 63%. Chief Judge Triggiano said there are only approximately 50 individuals at the facilities now, down from 200 to 300 before a series of high-profile failures and a criminal investigation led the state to pursue a new model for youth corrections.

“We need a secure facility here in Milwaukee County,” Chisholm said. He said the county needs the ability to start an intervention as soon as a police officer encounters an individual and, but also a facility for those that need to be help. He said the pandemic has strained the system and created a backlog where there were already issues. “[The Lincoln Hills] model did not work. That model put a lot of kids in harm’s way.” There were previously two facilities closer to Milwaukee County.

Murphy said the biggest challenge now is that the Wisconsin State Legislature hasn’t allocated the county the resources it needs to build a new facility.

The state allocated more than $100 million to the effort, but only $15.2 million to Milwaukee County. The county requested an additional $26 million. As of December, the county was paying for 18 individuals to stay in the long-term facility, but is now having challenges with short-term capacity locally. At the time of the December report, there were 129 individuals at the county’s detention facility, while there are only 127 beds (two were sleeping on cots).

“There is where the city and county need to work together to make a request for what they want,” Murphy said. “This is a very high priority for all of us. These are our children that are not being served.”

Murphy said those that cycle through for non-violent property crimes aren’t given justice. “They haven’t gotten the right services and they get a death sentence, they’re dead at 15,” he said.

Triggiano noted the complexity of finding a solution. “Really the three issues are prevention, accountability and the need to get good solid data so we can make decisions based on trends, based on what’s happening in our community,” she said. “We appreciate Alderman Murphy’s approach to this.”

“This is no silver bullet here,” said Murphy. “This is a complex problem and it’s not going to happen in terms of correcting it overnight.”

There are also political considerations. Murphy suggested he wouldn’t propose allocating any city money for the county issue until after the April 5 mayoral election. He said its important that the new mayor is supportive of the approach. Committee chair Marina Dimitrijevic, one of the candidates, agreed.

While the debate on big-picture strategy plays out, DHHS is working to revise its practices. The county department is developing a replacement for its Milwaukee County Accountability Program for assessing risk and placements. The “transition program,” as the new program is currently known, relies on a cognitive behavioral therapy approach that is focused on developing skills. The department, according to a presentation slide, believes the approach will help grow a social contract between youth and society, rather than destroying it.

Pethke said the credible messenger program is already starting to see results. “It’s been extremely successful for the short time we’ve been in operation,” she said.

For more on Murphy’s proposed reception center idea, see a Legislative Reference Bureau report on the idea’s application in other markets.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article misspelled David Muhammad’s name.

Related Legislation: File 211385