"I don't bite."

There’s been a flurry of media lately regarding my vote on the Linn County Juvenile Detention bed contract.

Here’s a quick and dirty on the situation from where I sit:

Johnson County has to contract with a juvenile detention center to take youth that are picked up by law enforcement and awaiting trial or placement elsewhere. Linn County has about 23 beds and they contract beds to us on an annual basis, which is where things get a little bit more complicated. Obviously, there’s no real way to know how many beds we will need, we typically estimate based on the previous year. The last five years, Johnson County has contracted between two and three beds. Some months we’ve used them all, some months we haven’t. Regardless of use, we pay for the beds. We sign a contract at the beginning of the fiscal based on an estimate from the previous years. If there are more youth than we have beds, we can request an extra bed if it’s available and we will pay for that bed by the day. These beds cost about $300/day, and if we use an extra bed, it’s about $200/day. Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve paid annually:

• FY18 - $438,906

• FY19 - $373,429

• FY20 - $329,874

• FY21 - $308,429

• FY22 - $381,629

• FY23 - $451,659

• FY24 - $416,788

This year, the sheriff and county attorney asked for an additional bed raising the number from three to four. I voted to keep it at three.

Here’s why:

There is a problem with the system and the tools that are being used to determine whether or not youth should be detained. This is not to say that there hasn’t been improvements to these systems. However, there is so much more that we need to do to address racial disparities. We need to understand the mechanisms and factors that lead to assessing youth behavior and how that leads to them being placed in detention. Additionally, we need to understand why we lack robust diversion programs to support these youth and their families before they are sent to an out-of-county placement and what that program would cost us. Let me be clear- I do not want our youth housed out of county while they wait for what comes next- court, placement, return to family, etc. AND that is not happening at a rate that currently dictates the need for a fourth bed. We have to use the previous year’s data to make an informed guess as to what will be needed and we don’t even have a full year’s data to utilize.

Three with V

What I am looking into are three things:

1. Start a Juvenile Detention Task Force (JDTF). I am proposing that this task force reside under the county’s current Juvenile Justice Youth Development program, which oversees funding to “promote positive youth development; [promote programs that] are effective in preventing juvenile crime and delinquency.” The JDTF would include impacted youth, service providers/advocates, law enforcement staff, county attorney staff, and Juvenile Justice officers. The goal, as I see it, will be to create an assessment of current data and practices of the juvenile justice system in our county and then provide the Board with recommendations for improving it. I believe this effort can be completed in 4-6 months, depending on staff capacity, and I think it will be essential to understanding where we are and where we want to be in 10-15 years, particularly as we explore the building of a new jail facility in our county.

2. Discuss with Linn County Supervisors and the executive director of their Juvenile Detention Center to see if we can have priority over a fourth bed as an overage (that ‘extra’ bed), on an as-needed basis. The state of Iowa dictates how many Juvenile Detention beds are available across all facilities. When Scott county opened their new facility, Linn County had to release some of their beds to them. This means that there are only about 23 beds available to Linn County and obviously they prioritize their youth. This means that those beds that are definitively contracted. I want to explore if there’s a way to ask for a prioritization of our youth for that ‘extra’ bed on an as-needed basis.

3. I’m asking folx to meet with me to talk about all of this; hence, the title of this newsletter is how I ended my last email to a Solon City Councilor- “I don’t bite.” There is an incredible unwillingness among local elected officials to meet face to face and have difficult conversations. I don’t care what political party you are affiliated with (and this one is a democrat, as are most of them), the impulse for my colleagues to fire off emails and social media posts blasting one another is incredibly frustrating. Why not meet and find common ground so we can figure out ways to work together? Why am I having to reach across this side of my political aisle to make actual change happen? I do not want people to agree with me, that’s not how this works. We can disagree and still find ways to improve the lives of our community members. We might not agree on the jail, but I hope we can agree on other aspects of public safety. Or not, and that’s okay, too. But firing away words massaged on our keyboards isn’t really going to get us anywhere. We need to remember that we have far more shared values than the current political whirlwind would allow. So let’s lean into that. We only have each other right now.

So that’s what I’ve got for right now. If you didn’t know my reasons for voting the way I do, hopefully this cleared it up. And if you have questions, let me know, I’d love to sit down and talk about it- here’s a pic of the Johnson County Health and Human Services sign, so you know where to find me!

Take care out there!

Maraming Salamat,

V