Jetson reform in early stages
By SANDY DAVIS
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — The head of the Office of Juvenile Justice said Friday that she would try to get state legislators to change the language in a 2008 law that mandates the closure of Jetson Center for Youth, a state juvenile prison.
Mary Livers, deputy secretary of OJJ, told the Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission during its monthly meeting at the Capitol that she wanted legislators to change the law and allow Jetson to stay open but operate under a different philosophy and a new name.
Livers also said that she would ask legislators to adopt a Bill of Rights for juveniles when they meet in 2009.
“That’s a very forward-thinking idea,” she said of the Bill of Rights. “If we do this, we would be among the first states to go forward and do something like this.”
In recent weeks, OJJ has been criticized for appearing to have ignored a state law when the agency announced its plans to keep Jetson open under a new name.
Jetson is a secure care facility for male juveniles and is located near Baker.
Livers has said that Jetson will become the state’s first regional facility, which will house fewer boys, when it reopens in June as the Capital Area Center for Youth.
However, in July, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law a bill, Act 565, that contained strong language requiring Jetson to close in 2009.
“Under no circumstances shall Jetson Center for Youth-East Baton Rouge Parish Unit be used as a juvenile facility after November 30, 2009,” the law states.
Livers told the commission that state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, who was recently appointed to the commission, has agreed to “head” the legislative effort.
Broome replaced former state Sen. Don Cravins on the commission. Cravins, who sponsored the bill to close Jetson, recently moved to Washington D.C. to work with U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.
Livers also said that she would ask legislators to make another change to state law by allowing OJJ 30 days - rather than 14 days - to evaluate and assign children who have been placed in the state’s custody.
Commissioner Angéle Davis, who is also state commissioner of administration, announced to the commission that Jindal has agreed to fund a juvenile regional facility in Acadiana.
“The governor will include the funding in his capital outlay bill,” Davis said. “The governor has made that commitment.”
Act 565 of 2008 mandated that OJJ create three such regional facilities. With the Acadiana facility funded and the proposed Capital Area Center for Youth placed at Jetson, OJJ will have only one regional facility left to open.
Mark Steward, who is credited with being the founder of the acclaimed Missouri Model - which is a treatment-based method of caring for juvenile delinquents placed in the state’s care - gave the commission an evaluation of where Louisiana is in adopting the Missouri Method.
Louisiana began the process of adopting Missouri’s method about five years ago as part of its juvenile justice reform plans, Steward said.
Bridge City Center for Youth, located in New Orleans and one of three state-run juvenile prisons, is where the Missouri Model’s pilot program began in 2004.
“It had become a showplace during the first 18 months,” Steward said of Bridge City. “Then the hurricanes hit in 2005.”
He said hurricanes Katrina and Rita derailed the program and progress halted.
“There was a lot of backsliding into the old ways after the hurricanes hit,” he said, referring to switching from a treatment approach to a more penal approach to the juvenile delinquents held in state facilities.
Steward said the state is making progress working towards getting back on track with the Missouri program.
“But we’re still in the beginning phases, quite frankly,” he said.
Copyright 2009 Capital City Press