7 youth lockups in state to be run by firms

Governor unveils privatization plan

All seven state-operated youth lockups will be privatized next year, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced during a Monday news conference.

The change is just one of many revisions that would affect Arkansas children entrenched in the juvenile justice system. Some steps have already been taken by the Division of Youth Services.

The agency took over operation of the juvenile treatment centers in January at Hutchinson's direction after the bidding process fell apart.

The Youth Services Division's time in charge of the facilities has been rocked by escapes of teenagers, scathing reports issued by juvenile justice advocates and revelations of unsafe conditions for youths being held at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, a facility near Alexander that is under a separate private contract.

The agency also had to navigate the state's lengthy procurement process to buy basic supplies, as well as address high turnover rates and understaffing at the lockups.

"There is not a more important responsibility that we have than to properly take care of those who are assigned to us by the court system," Hutchinson said at the state Capitol.

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The state will begin the new bid process in December. Officials expect to select one or more vendors by March, and the new operators would take over administration of the lockups in July.

Among changes already in place at the juvenile jails: Youths now use Virtual Arkansas, a state-accredited online education program, in lieu of teachers in the classroom; full-time therapists have been hired through community health centers, so counseling and treatment is readily available; and family members can call and visit their children more often.

Findings from experts and hired consultants may lead to further changes, too.

Each of the seven lockups and the Alexander unit will undergo a security audit led by Brian Marr, the new chief of security for the Department of Human Services.

The Youth Services Division, which is under the purview of the department, will face an independent review of its "role and work" -- "how we deliver services, what gaps there are, and what we can do better," Hutchinson said -- by an entity that has not been selected yet. The governor compared the review to a similar evaluation of the state's child welfare services, which was conducted by a policy expert from Alabama in 2015.

The state has already retained national health care consulting firm Sellers Dorsey and Associates LLC, with a projected cost of less than $50,000, to figure out how Medicaid funds can pay for certain juvenile services, according to procurement documents.

This could mean converting some of the youth lockups to less secure facilities that focus on mental health, since those types of sites are eligible to receive Medicaid dollars, or opting to use "residential alternatives," such as electronic monitoring. Sellers Dorsey's work will begin this month and is expected to conclude in six to eight weeks.

Betty Guhman, the Youth Services director, hopes to rely less on funds from the state's general revenue, which backs about 84 percent of the agency's overall budget. She sees Medicaid dollars as a key way to cut costs.

Between 2011 and 2016, about $24.5 million to $25.5 million each year from Arkansas' general revenue went to confining youths who were in state custody.

The expected amount for fiscal 2017 is $27.6 million; that figure is set to stay the same until the end of fiscal 2018.

'Deep dive'

Some of the youth agency's harshest critics applauded the efforts, although they say some concerns remain.

"This is a step in the right direction and there are many positives here," said Sharon Strong, an attorney with Disability Rights Arkansas, a nonprofit with federal authority to monitor the facilities. "But we have questions about how some things will play out."

Strong says she supports the agency's push to strengthen family engagement and Guhman's expressed commitment to reduce the lockup rate.

Each facility now has a "Facility Services Coordinator" who works with family members while children are in custody, plans family activities and integrates daily team-building exercises in the youths' daily routines.

At the news conference, Guhman said that as fewer children were ordered to go to juvenile jail, the agency would divert those residential funds to community-based providers that offer services to troubled youths.

But Strong worries that juvenile judges would be reluctant to send youths to community programs, unless they were "beefed-up."

This requires them getting extra funds first, she said. And in some rural areas, community programs don't exist, she added.

Guhman pointed to the nearly $2 million in new "innovation grants" as one way the agency is strengthening community-based programs. The grant requires that programs and judges work together to create proposals providing alternatives to the confinement of youths.

Strong also voiced concern about how the Virtual Arkansas program replaced the more traditional classroom model, especially for students with learning disabilities.

"If a kid comes in without an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and has not been identified as a kid that needs special services, how will this actual lack of teachers in the classroom affect that?" she asked.

"There will be a problem identifying them. A teacher, one in the classroom, needs to assess that."

With Virtual Arkansas, "educational coaches" help students while they work on the computers and interact with a teacher online. Guhman said the agency still provides special education, GED and vocational programs.

Cindy Gillespie, the Human Services Department director, described running the facilities since January as a "Christmas present that we were not expecting that changed our world."

"It has led to a lot of work this year, a lot of changes and a lot of positive action," she said.

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, and member of the Children and Youth Committee, also said that having "first-hand" experience at the facilities is essential in drafting sound policies, particularly plans that lower recidivism.

"This is the seven-month deep dive we needed in our government for a long time. It is priceless because these are children," Irvin said. "This is about the toll on human life."

The state began operating youth jails after lawmakers failed to approve a $160 million contract to run the juvenile facilities.

The nonprofits that had operated the sites for nearly 20 years challenged the results of the bidding process twice -- blasting officials for "unfairly" scoring their proposals and awarding the contract to Youth Opportunity Investments LLC, an Indiana-based company with a more expensive bid.

Hutchinson said last year's botched bid caused officials to rethink the "process" when requesting proposals, including "making sure the terms are clear, making sure that the requirements are fair... and that there's a clarity of understanding as to how the different bids will be scored."

"As the chief executive, I am going to make sure that it is a fair process, that it's open, but also that it has an ability to hold the contractors accountable," he said.

A Section on 08/15/2017

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