By Todd South
Chattanooga Times Free Press
ATLANTA, Ga. — For half of Bobby Hughes’ career in juvenile justice, federal monitors have looked over his shoulder.
For more than a decade after citing Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice for more than 100 violations, federal officials have poured over Georgia’s facilities and programs designed to house and rehabilitate youth offenders.
Last month, those monitors said Georgia no longer needs supervision. They said that Elbert Shaw Jr. Regional Youth Detention Center in Dalton, where Mr. Hughes has spent 11 of his 22 years working as director, “is perhaps one of the best juvenile detention facilities nationally.”
He was there in 1998, when the federal government found 105 violations in six areas of juvenile justice service, including education, medical or health services and protection from harm. Some of the citations noted the department violated children’s rights, which brought the U.S. Department of Justice to the state to monitor the system.
“Even though it sounds like a negative thing, it has brought us all together,” Mr. Hughes said.
He can now pick up the phone to both share and learn from other centers across the state, he said.
Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Albert Murray, who took over the department in 2004 after it had been under monitoring for six years, said change was imperative within the department.
“It was necessary that the department make a culture change to address care,” said the 30-year veteran of juvenile justice.
Mr. Murray worked in juvenile justice for more than 20 years before taking over the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority in the mid-1990s. He then worked with the Alabama Department of Corrections before being hired by Gov. Sonny Perdue to head Georgia’s system.
The commissioner said adding staff to the beleaguered system was key to improving conditions of overcrowding and poor performance in the six areas cited by the federal monitors.
When monitors inspected Georgia’s juvenile justice system in 1997, the regional youth detention centers were at 208 percent of capacity. The centers now are at 97 percent.
Partnering with the juvenile justice courts and especially reaching out to judges has helped the system better focus on rehabilitation, Mr. Murray said, especially in its ability to keep kids in communities under probation services and types of service other than detention centers.
Georgia has 22 regional youth detention centers, which are short-term facilities for youth awaiting court hearings, and seven youth development campuses for those sentenced to long-term confinement.
The Elbert Shaw Detention Center was one of the facilities looked at early in the federal inspections and was chosen as one of six facilities for a detailed four-month audit last year.
Previous problems in the juvenile system didn’t go unnoticed by staff or management, Mr. Hughes said.
“I think the department has always wanted to do the right thing, but didn’t have the resources,” he said. "(Monitoring) brought the money to do what was necessary.”
At the Dalton center, the extra money meant 35 security personnel instead of 15, seven-day-a-week health care instead of four hours weekly, additional teachers, nurses and programs ranging from pet therapy to a greenhouse to help youth.
The 30-bed center averaged 64 occupants in the late 1990s. It now hovers at about 30 occupants, Mr. Hughes said.
He credits his staff, added resources, new methods and relationships in the system and the local community to elevating the formerly strapped system and his center in particular.
“In Dalton, I’ve really been blessed with this community,” he said. “If I need something I can pick up the phone.”
But after a decade of monitoring, taking direct calls from the state commissioner and having someone over his shoulder, Mr. Hughes admits the future is wide open and doesn’t leave much time to relax.
“In one way it puts a lot more pressure on us,” Mr. Hughes said, because the center’s staff has worked too hard to lose what’s been gained.
TIMELINE
* March 1997-February 1998 -- U.S. Department of Justice investigates and inspects Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice facilities. Civil Rights Division concludes certain conditions violated juveniles’ rights. More than 100 violations cover six areas: education, quality assurance, mental health, investigations, medical or health services and protection from harm.
* October 2003 -- Department of Juvenile Justice education services found compliant with federal requirements and are released from monitoring.
* January 2005 -- The department’s quality assurance and investigations are released from monitoring.
* July 2008 -- The Department of Justice selects six Georgia juvenile justice facilities for inspection.
* December 2008 -- Federal inspectors complete facility inspections.
* April 2009 -- The lead federal monitor issues a final report stating that the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice complies with all remaining citations from the 1998 memorandum.
* May 2009 -- Georgia juvenile justice is released from federal monitoring.
Copyright 2009 Chattanooga Publishing Company