LITTLE ROCK — Youth Services Division Director Ron Angel told legislators Wednesday that he offered to resign after a delinquent youth released over employees' objections was later arrested on a capital-murder charge.
"I have to accept responsibility for it, and I do accept responsibility for it because I am the division director," Angel said.
http://showtime.ark…">Read letters pertaining to Terry case
State Department of Human Services Director John Selig, Angel's boss, did not accept the offer because he believes that Angel handled the situation properly and is taking the Youth Services Division in the right direction, Selig said after the legislative meeting.
"I never took seriously the thought of him resigning," Selig said. "I appreciated the fact that he offered, because it just shows how sincere he is, but I felt like he did exactly what he needed to do."
Angel fired longtime employee Jacobia Twiggs last month for releasing 11 youths against the advice of employees at the lockup where the boys were held.
Angel said he wanted to address any "stumbles" the Youth Services Division has had during his 26-month tenure, but told legislators he could not discuss specific cases because of privacy laws. He spoke before the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs and the Senate Committee on Children and Youth.
According to documents obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week, Twiggs released, among others, 16-year-old Antonio Terry on May 1. Little Rock police arrested Terry and three other teens two months later in the June 30 shooting death of 67-year-old Maurice "Beau" Clark.
According to records in Twiggs' personnel file, several people warned her that a child identified only as "A.T." was a "risk to the community." She released him anyway to make room for more youths entering the lockup.
Angel described what happened as a "breakdown in the process" and said there was "no excuse" for what happened.
Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, asked Angel whether he signed off on Terry's release.Angel said that he did not because Terry was in what the division calls "aftercare," which is counseling and other programs akin to adult probation.
Angel said he only approves releases once youths finish all programs tied to their time in the Youth Services Division system.
"Why don't you include that in your safeguards - that the buck stops with DYS?" Steele asked. "Why shouldn't someone with DYS, preferably you, sign off on every person before he is released to the public?"
Angel responded that he now keeps up with which youths are being sent to aftercare from residential lockups.
"But is that policy?" Steele pressed.
"No, it's not," Angel said, "but I can very simply make it a policy."
Rep. Pam Adcock, D-Little Rock, said both Terry and Clark, the man who was killed during the robbery, lived in her district.
She asked Angel why Terry was allowed to remain in aftercare, which allows him to live at home, after he cut off an electronic ankle monitor that the Youth Services Division required him to wear.
"Why was he not immediately sent back [to a division lockup]?" Adcock asked.
Angel told Adcock he couldn't answer her question because of privacy laws. Youth Services Division spokesman Julie Munsell has declined to release any information to the newspaper about what Terry did or didn't do while in aftercare because of the same privacy laws.
Not everything Angel talked about related to shortcomings by the Youth Services Division. He told committee members there have been many successes since he was hired in July 2007.
He noted that the division will soon break ground on new classrooms and education facilities at four youth lockups and treatment centers. The division is using $17 million in federal stimulus funding to build the new facilities.
"These kids, when they walk into these classrooms, I want them to feel like somebody cares about them," Angel said.
He also told legislators that the agency finally had a draft policy manual as well as a strategic plan for improving the Youth Services Division over the next five years. There were no written policies when Angel took over, he said.
"I think it's a very aggressive plan," he said. "It's going to be hard to manage, but I believe it is necessary."
There have been other plans over the years, Munsell said after the meeting, but "none as comprehensive."
But Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, seemed baffled by Angel's large-scale goals, in part because committee members had been given copies of state Health Department reports detailing plumbing problems at some Youth Services Division facilities.
"I'm not very excited about yet another plan out of DYS," said Madison, who has been in the Legislature since 1995. "If you can't keep the showers running or toilets flushing or provide soap in the bathrooms, I'm not sure we need to be looking at comprehensive plans."
Madison apologized to Angel for being "so negative" but said she's frustrated by the many problems the division has faced over the years.
"I've lost track of how many nice, colored brochures I have of plans for DYS," Madison said, holding up the plan Angel had passed out. "We're not taking care of daily business.
"I'd like to see you refocus on taking care of some nuts and bolts here."
Front Section, Pages 1, 5 on 08/27/2009