Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday he fully endorses his Youth Services Division director's six-pronged plan to attack chronic problems of understaffing, poorly trained workers and lack of comprehensive treatment for child criminals.
But when it came to the money to carry out the plan, Huckabee hesitated.
The division, Huckabee said, is "on the right path" under the leadership of Director Russell Rigsby.
Rigsby advocates overhauling numerous programs that will require more state funding for the division.
But the governor said he's not ready to commit to seeking the entire amount Rigsby has in mind because he hasn't seen a detailed analysis.
"That's a legislative issue," said the state's chief executive. "The Legislature appropriates."
However, the governor said, "We're going to push for solving the problem."
Huckabee was questioned by a reporter about Rigsby's proposals after a three-day series of articles this week in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about problems in the division and Rigsby's plans for making improvements.
"What these stories reveal more than anything else is that Russell has truly gotten his arms around this issue," Huckabee said. "He has a detailed, thorough and realistic plan. DYS is in the best shape it's probably been in largely due to Russell's management."
Rigsby plans to lobby the Legislature in 2001 for money needed to complete a five-year plan costing $9.9 million. Only two years have been funded so far.
Rigsby has "kept us informed throughout the whole process [about] what he's doing to get things into control," Huckabee said.
Huckabee said Rigsby "inherited a lot of problems." One is poorly trained workers.
The director's plan called for eliminating 38 employees to be replaced by 45 positions requiring different qualifications.
Most of the workers who would lose their jobs are black, which caused a backlash.
"He's held his ground. I have confidence in Russell, and I have confidence in his plan," the governor said.
That five-year plan, which began this year, includes:
- Reshaping five regional juvenile camps around the state into comprehensive treatment complexes at Alexander, Harrisburg, Lewisville, Mansfield and Dermott;
- Tearing down antiquated dorms at the Alexander campus and the Mansfield wilderness camp and replacing them with modern, high-security structures;
- Reorganizing the Alexander staff and hiring better skilled workers and paying them more;
- Creating a major complex at Dermott to house 18- to 21-year-olds and to separate more violent offenders from the general population;
- Hiring 14 more staff monitors to travel to every Youth Services Division facility and evaluate the care of children each month, which would bring the monitoring staff up to 20;
- Add hundreds of slots for children in the treatment programs.
The division, a part of the state Department of Human Services, was created in 1993. Since then, there have been numerous allegations of sloppy management and a dangerous environment, including abuse within the holding facilities, failure to monitor children once they have been released and employees who didn't receive evaluations for three years.
Huckabee became governor July 15, 1996. Since 1997, there has been four directors of the Department of Human Services and six directors of the division.
Rigsby took over the division on Jan. 13, 1999. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Rigsby previously managed the serious offender wilderness camp at Harrisburg for Consolidated Youth Services Inc., which had a contract with the Youth Services Division.
The governor also complimented Mary Hargrove, associate editor of the Democrat-Gazette, who wrote the series of articles, which were published Sunday through Tuesday.
"I'm grateful," Huckabee said. "Some might say, 'Well, she just stirred up a hornets nest,' but that was a hornets nest that needed to be stirred up. She did it very professionally. I can't say enough about the manner in which she conducted these stories."