The state’s juvenile detention system is broken, leaders from several counties said Thursday as they testified before the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee in Trenton.
Difficulties finding spots for detained juveniles, ever-increasing costs, more serious crimes and a large population of adults in juvenile detention were among the list of issues.
Atlantic County’s prosecutor even claimed that some police departments were not making arrests of juveniles because they know there is nowhere to house them.
“Today’s hearing is meant to gather firsthand expert testimony for those most familiar with the challenges in our juvenile detention system,” said state Sen. Linda Greenstein, the committee’s chair. “We want to make sure we are meeting the needs of detained juveniles and helping them on the path to sustained rehabilitation in the long term.”
Seven of the state’s 21 counties have juvenile detention centers. They have a total of 332 spots, down from 520 following a review that found staffing was not sufficient for full capacity.
Six of those centers provide beds to the other 14 counties, with only Atlantic County not accepting outside juveniles. Its 20-bed Harborfields is regularly at capacity, with the county forced to search for places that will take the overflow.
Often that means holding juveniles well beyond the federally mandated six-hour time limit to find them a spot.
In September, there was a day when a juvenile was held 60 hours, Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds told the committee.
Because they cannot be put in an adult holding cell, the juveniles often wind up “handcuffed to a bench, handcuffed to a pole, handcuffed to a radiator,” he said. “It re-victimizes the child. … We are creating a powder keg.”
This issue sparked a lawsuit the county filed in September against the Juvenile Justice Commission — which legislation renamed the Youth Justice Commission earlier this week.
The litigation insists that it is the commission’s job to find placement for juveniles.
Atlantic County Assignment Judge Michael Blee agreed in a December ruling. The Youth Justice Commission is appealing.
YJC Executive Director Jennifer LeBaron continued to reference the county’s responsibility in placement when she addressed the Senate panel Thursday.
She talked of how the number of detained youth has declined by 83 percent in the approximately two decades since the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, or JDAI.
Recidivism also has been on the decline since 2008, she said, calling it “a profound victory.”
It also is why 10 counties closed their own detention centers over the past 20 years or so, and are among the 14 who now send their juveniles to outside facilities.
While she heralded those closings a proof of declining detentions, she noted that it is the responsibility of those counties to make sure they have adequate plans in place to send their juveniles.
The YJC "pats themselves on the back" for those closings, while "blaming us," Mercer County Executive Dan Benson said. "You can't have it both ways."
“I truly believe that the YJC abdicated its responsibility to the counties, but want to control what the counties do,” Cumberland County Commissioner James Sauro said. “This has to stop.”
When Mercer County had an issue finding a spot for a juvenile last year, they reached out to the YJC, but received no help, Benson said.
Scrambling, they found an unoccupied wing in the adult facility, and were able to get corrections officers to watch the youth until a bed opened up.
“We received a letter from (the Justice Commission) saying, ‘You can’t do that,’” Benson said.
But there were no suggestions on what they should have done except get more beds.
LeBaron suggested during her testimony that the sending counties may need to contract more so-called “guaranteed beds,” which are paid for annually regardless of whether they are used or not.
If the sending county runs out of spaces, they can then pay per diem — if they can find a place that will take the juvenile.
The problem is, the counties with detention centers do not want to increase the guaranteed beds as they worry they will not have enough spots for their own juveniles, Benson explained.
With 25 beds contracted in Middlesex, he said Mercer has more beds there than Middlesex does.
The contracted beds cost about $350 to $400 per day, he said. But if they go beyond the 25, it runs about $900 on a per diem basis.
As a result, he said he is expecting “at least a $2 million increase in budget for youth detention this year.”
Cumberland County was paying about $750,000 for its juveniles in 2022, but were over $2 million last year, “and we’re rushing toward $3 million,” Sauro said. “That’s on the citizens. That’s taxpayer money.”
Benson said his county has “joked” about reopening its detention center, as the costs to send their juveniles elsewhere increases.
When asked by one of the senators if that could really happen, Benson pointed out that the YJC would have to approve it.
“They’ve made a statement earlier that they don’t believe any new facilities need to be open,” he said.
Noting the study that removed 188 spots because of insufficient staffing, LeBaron said that a solution may be to examine salary structures and other possible barriers.
“The instability of the detention system is aggravated by long case processing times and corresponding lengths of stay in detention that preclude beds from turning over quickly, which does strain bed availability,” the YJC executive director said.
That is because the crimes juveniles now face are much more severe, officials noted.
First- and second-degree crimes make up 97 percent of the juvenile detention cases from Atlantic County, Reynolds said.
“These cases are really complex. It involves multiple defendants. It involves shootings, carjackings and homicides,” he said. “We’re not talking about a bag of weed. We’re not talking about a compact disc being stolen from Boscov’s. We’re talking about really horrific crimes.”
The length of time also leads to many “juveniles” going well past their 18th birthdays while still being housed with children, some said. They get arrested just before turning 18, and then spend the next couple of birthdays waiting for their case to go through the system.
Sauro estimated almost 50 percent of their juvenile population is 18 or older.
“Never ever should youth be incarcerated with adults who are seasoned veterans,” Atlantic County Sheriff Joseph O’Donoghue said. “Never, ever should it happen because it encourages them to continue in that life.”
The sheriff said he knows that the juvenile system can have a positive impact. He was one of those incarcerated youth at 13. It was then that he found the people who led him to a life in law enforcement.
“If you don’t act on this now, the consequences will be so severe in the future,” he said.
Many of the county leaders urged the panel to read the Atlantic County case that is being appealed. They also suggested that the senators could end the battle by passing legislation confirming the judge's decision.
“You as a committee have the power to make changes,” Sauro said. “The counties need you to make these changes. The children need you to make these changes, and the citizens of the state need that.”
