Linn County rethinks strategy for low-risk juvenile offenders

For the first years of its life, the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center was often filled nearly to capacity.

“We were bursting at the seams,” said Peg Pangborn, the center's coordinator. “We were quite honestly taking a serious look at whether we need to expand. We decided ‘no.' ”

Good call. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, the 10-year-old facility, which can hold 35, averaged just more than 14 prisoners a day. Pangborn aims to keep those numbers low, while giving many youths a better chance at coping with their first brushes with the law.

“The most popular thought at this point is, maybe secure detention isn't always the place to go,” Pangborn said. “We have these low-level offenders who are brought into the detention center, and they're mixed with high-level offenders. The thing is, that association is not good.”

The center at 800 Walford Rd. SW, south of The Eastern Iowa Airport, houses youths awaiting court hearings on the charges on which they've been arrested. Convicted juvenile offenders sentenced to incarceration serve their time in state-run detention centers.

It's the low-risk youths that Pangborn wants to keep away from repeat offenders.

“You'd probably prefer your kids not hang around with kids who get in a lot of trouble, because they'd learn things from those kids,” said Candice Bennett, chief Juvenile Court officer for the 6th Judicial District.

“The bottom line is, detention itself is a risk factor for delinquency,” said Bart Lubow, director of programs for high-risk youths for the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation and designer of its juvenile detention alternative initiative. “It's not a hypothesis; it's an established fact that detention itself is a risk factor.”

Linn County is adopting two strategies this fall to prevent that. The first will allow low-risk youths - often first-time offenders charged with property crimes - to await their court dates at home under “a very high level of supervision” from Pangborn's staff.

Pangborn said county staff will make random home visits to ensure youths aren't roaming. Some juveniles also may be ordered to wear GPS tracking devices on their ankles.

“This simply allows them to continue to go to school and maintain their community ties, which hopefully will improve their chances of success in the long run,” Pangborn said.

“We're cautiously optimistic this will be an improvement,” said Lance Heeren, assistant Linn County attorney in the juvenile division. “The key element is going to be the child's parents. The parent or guardian has to be willing to allow basically unimpaired access to the home, any time day or night.”

The second program, LINK, will ensure a meeting within 24 hours of arrest between every youthful offender, family members and staff from the county's juvenile justice and social service agencies.

“They would do a very, very, very thorough needs assessment, to just deter and keep the kid out of the system,” Pangborn said. “We don't want our staff to go in and take over. We want to act as a support for the parents.”

The policies will apply only to youths who have responsible adults at home willing to cooperate with the program. Traditional detention will still be available for high-risk youths facing more serious charges.

The alternative programs could keep most youths facing misdemeanor charges from serving time at the center. In the year ending June 30, that meant 303 of 461 youthful offenders.

“That's a lot of kids admitted to detention for pretty minor charges,” Pangborn said.

Keeping a youth in juvenile detention costs about $235 a day, the rate Linn County charges others to house their juveniles. Boarding out-of-county juveniles raised $542,421 of the center's $2,382,455 budget for fiscal 2009. The county also received $609,076 in state reimbursement for the services, a payment required by the Iowa Constitution.

Johnson County, which adopted an alternative detention program several years ago, reduced its contract with Linn County from six reserved beds to four this year.

The new approach means staffing changes at the detention center. Another seven-bed pod will be closed, leaving 21 beds available. Four staff will be transferred to the new programs, leaving 14 counselors in the center.