Idaho Association of County Juvenile Justice Administrators Meeting Minutes

 

Date:  March 9, 2005

Place:  McCall Best Western

 

0900 hrs.          Call To Order President

 

Introductions Membership

 

Present:  

Debbie Stallcup, Steve Jett, Doug Brown, John Triplett, Melinda Hadzor, Justin Steele, Levi Wallenwaber, Chris Talkington, JT Taylor, Don Garner, Terry Lewis, Nadine McDonald, Shelly Smith, Ross Edmonds, Bill Lasley

 

Review/approval of minutes  President 

Don made a motion to accept the minutes, motion was seconded and passed.

 

Treasurer’s Report    Treasurer 

  • $8252.30

 

Regional Reports

o       No regional reports were scheduled.

 

Committee Reports   Committee Reps

 

Board of Juvenile Corrections          President

  • Feb meeting cancelled.  Next meeting will be March 18.  Steve will attend.

 

Governor’s Children’s Task Force

  • Debbie Stallcup reported on the Task Force.  The Task Force has drafted a letter to the Governor concerning the Peer-Assisted Restraints.  Director Reinke presented at one of the meetings and reported that the Peer-assisted restraints had decreased, but were still happening.  The Task Force continues to oppose the practice. 
  • The issue of non-schooling was addressed.  Boise State is doing research.  There are about 14000 missing kids, not on school records or involved in the home schooling network.  This figure was arrived at by using census reports vs. actual school/home schooling network records.  Definition for truancy is different from school district to school district, so this creates a problem in any statewide practice or legislation.  Home school lobbyists are strong, and getting any legislation concerning home schooling is difficult.  Research needs to be done, but figures are difficult to come by.  Could our Association report on the numbers of children, ages 7-16, that are on probation that are in public school, private school, home schooled, or non-schooling?  Debbie will get questions to Steve, who will send out a survey.
  • Training that the Task Force puts on in three different areas of the state will be done again this year, with a nationally recognized speaker, Toni Cavanaugh, who has authored books on children’s sexual abuse. 

 

ICCMH

  • Mental Health request from Chuck Halligan-- Chuck Halligan had contacted me just prior to the February meeting and requested help getting an ad hoc committee to explore juvenile mental health issues.  The original request mentioned issues surrounding sentencing.  Our response had been to clarify that our needs were not necessarily tied to sentencing.  We agreed to meet, but the first priority of the committee would be to identify areas that we need to work on, determine what are the immediate needs and then focus on other needs after that.  Steve talked to Chuck and shared our concerns. It was felt the most pressing need is for immediate access to mental services not the need for evaluations at sentencing.  Don Garner, John Triplett volunteered, and Steve will poll the membership to see if anyone else is interested, possibly representing a small county. 
  • Ross talked about the statement that he made in the November ICCMH Meeting. It was reported that he had stated that he is trying to sell something to a group that is not interested, meaning the administrators. We let him know that we are interested.  Ross said that he feels that he is trying to defend a system that we feel does not work.  Ross stated that ICCMH may invite any council member that feels that the councils are not working and share what they think the problems are.
  • Next ICCMH meeting has been canceled. The next meeting will be in April on the second Tuesday.
  • Jeff D case--nothing has changed.
  • Bill S1164 Changes to the Mental Health Act.  This states the Judges can order mental health services. There are 370 kids in residential care at average of $14,000.00 per kid.  The changes to the bill are moving forward. Ross will send the SED definition to Steve.

 

Training Committee (VP’s)

  • May 4, 5 training.  Location, etc. The Coaching training will be in Boise.  The first day is only a half day for top managers only.  The second day is for both managers and supervisors. We have had very good response. The training will be sponsored by this association.  Steve will let everyone the location.  (NOTE:  THE TRAINING WILL BE AT THE POST ACADEMY)
  • The National Juvenile Detention  is putting on training in Boise “Changing the Institutional Culture through Cognitive- Behavioral Programs and Staff Training: A New Look at Behavior Management” (NOTE: THIS TRAINING WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF LACK OF REGISTRANTS FROM THE WESTERN REGION)
  • JAIBG Training  April 12-14

 

 

Legislative Committee

  • SB1165
  • Rule of 80
  • The prosecutors rule of 80 failed in Legislative committee.  The Idaho Code reads that if you feel that you meet the rule of 80, your agency can petition PERSI for rule of 80.  
  • Steve has a meeting with a Persi rep on the 30th.  If applicable, he may ask more questions concerning the rules. 
  • Doug stated he is willing try to get is through in his county and Nadine also.  

 

IJOS Board

  • Nadine stated that IJOS is working on interfacing with the ISTARS data base.

 

Other Committees

 

IAC/Commissioner’s update IAC rep

  • No IAC rep.

 

Juvenile Training Council/P.O.S.T. Update    IACJJA Reps and IAC Reps

  • Next JTC meeting Mar 21
  • Bill Lasley will discuss after lunch.

 

General Administrator Discussion Topics

  • Strip search info from Judge Varin  Steve passed out a handout on strip search issues put out by the Juvenile and Family Law Digest.
  • Prison rape elimination act and data collection was discussed by Steve.  A representative from DOC who is in charge of the PREA grant will address us in Moscow in June.  Steve met with Jeff Zamuda from the Department of Correction. They want every agency to come up with a policy the deal with rape or violent sexual contact within facilities. Detention centers may receive a survey on sexual violence from the Census Bureau.
  • Another mental health count in Spring.  Annual event?  It was agreed that we would do another snapshot survey on April 15.  This will be a semi-annual event.  Steve will send out a reminder on this.
  • Formatting and contents of the June Report to IACC.  Steve took some ideas for the report that he will give to the IACC on June 7 at the Summer Conference in Moscow. 
    • Some of the thoughts from the group were:
      • Mental Health survey and results
      • Trainings
        • May 4,5 coaching trainings
        • March 22 NPJS Training
      • See if we can get a Commissioner designated to our meetings
      • Number of counties that are members
      • Information sharing
      • Service on other boards related to Juvenile Justice
        • IJOS board
        • ICCMH
        • Governor’s Task Force on Children
        • Juvenile Training Council
        • Executive Board of the National Juvenile Detention Assoc.
        • Detention Standards Committee
      • Enter action with other committees
      • Helped develop state-wide standards for probation
      • Numbers of kids on probation
  • DJC 10 yr anniversary meetings-“The Journey Continues”—(See Bill’s DJC Report)

 

DJC topics                  DJC Rep

  • POST update-given by Bill Lasley for Marcy Chadwell
    • There 17 for signed up for the next detention academy as well as one application from JCC Lewiston.
    • There are 16 for the next probation academy in May.
    • The new training building is now open.
    • Some major changes for poster being considered as a result of the Department of Corrections coming on board for certification.
      • The five-week Department of Corrections academies will be open campus style.
      • The next adult detention academy is going to be open campus also because there was a large number of applicants that needed to go to this academy.
      • Director Becar does not want to hold off-site academies as it takes too many training specialists away from POST for too long.
      • The open campus academies to present some problems because policies will have to be developed for those coming in late, those coming in with alcohol on their breath, those not coming in.
      • At the present time the juvenile training Council has not voted to make juvenile academies open campus.
    • Another change that may happen in the future for adult academies in order to save funds will be to have the training specialists teach more at the Academy.  There was a lot of opposition to this from the administrators because it is very important for us to have juvenile oriented people teach juvenile oriented classes.  Steve brought up the example of the patrol Academy juvenile procedures instructor and how his curriculum was not up to date.
      • Another problem is that there is only one juvenile oriented training specialist.  The adult academies have more than one training specialist that can share the responsibilities of instructing.  That is just not possible with the way the juvenile training specialist works now.
    • One technique that we will use to save money is to house instructors in the dorms if they have an overnight stay, and all meals will be eaten in the cafeteria at POST.
    • The Department of juvenile corrections is going to do a task analysis for the direct care staff in the three facilities.  This is being funded by DJC. budget and will not take away from any of the juvenile training Council budget.  This is being done in order to start providing uniform training through the state for DJC staff, and also move toward DJC staff certification.
  • Bill Lasley has made some changes to the reporting sheet on State Block Grant
  • Roch Clapp has resigned and there has not been  any decision made as to who will take his place
  • Director Rienke stated that he need 20 new employee to be able to discontinue peer on peer restraints. He is make a presentation before JFAC
  • JCC St Anthony administrator update
    • The superintendent position is open again.  The last round of interviews did not pan out.
  • DJC is looking at the last 10years.  This is the focus of the upcoming “The Journey Continues” meetings that will be held throughout the state in September and October.  They want to illustrate where we were in 1995, where are we now and where are we going.  There will be seven all day celebration s around the State.
  • Jim Crowely will be the new district one liaison
  • John made a motion that we pay for flowers for the Director.  Terry seconded.  The motion carried
  • John made a motion that we pay for lunch and the meeting room.  Terry seconded.  The motion carried.

 

Parting thoughts

  • Steve brought up the necessity of a March meeting, now that we meet with IAC in February.  This will be tabled until we set the schedule for next year’s meetings.
  • John made a motion that the meeting be adjourned, Nadine seconded and the motion carried.

 

IMPORTANT

The next meeting will be on June 6, 2005 at 0900 hrs at the University Inn in Moscow.  This meeting will be in conjunction with the IACC conference, and it is anticipated that we will have representatives from the IACC at the meeting.  It is also anticipated that we will give a report to the IACC on the following day.  Please plan on attending, and also encourage your county commissioners to please attend.