Monroe County State Attorney’s Office – Round-table discussion on the detention center, youth crime-prevention initiatives and mental health, among other things

MARATHON, MAY 4, 2018 – The Monroe County Juvenile Detention Center is expensive to operate and often under-utilized but closing it would do more harm than good, say Florida Keys leaders whose agencies have stakes in the juvenile justice system.

At the invitation of state Rep. Holly Raschein of Key Largo, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Christina Daly came to Marathon City Hall on May 2 to lead a round-table discussion on the detention center, youth crime-prevention initiatives and mental health, among other things. Participants included, among others, Sheriff Rick Ramsay, State Attorney Dennis Ward, Public Defender Robert Lockwood, Circuit Court Judge Bonnie Nelms, School District Superintendent Mark Porter and School Board member John Dick.

The session was called to discuss alternatives to “secure detention.” There was agreement that based on the Keys’ unique geography and rural classification, for more alternatives than currently in place, the islands need more resources. For example, there is no residential drug treatment program in Monroe for youths.

The juvenile detention center on Stock Island has 10 beds (six for boys, four for girls) and costs about $1 million annually to operate, said Vincent Vurro, superintendent of the center. The high cost is because even if it houses just one detainee at a time, it must still be staffed around the clock. There is a staff of 17, which includes law enforcement, administration and support staff.

“Keeping the kids local” should be the top priority, Daly said, echoing others who said if the Keys don’t have their own facility to house youth offenders after sentencing, the offenders would be sent to mainland facilities, as they used to be before Monroe County had its own center.

If that were to happen, those offenders could return home more hardened after serving their time and may be likely to commit more, and more serious, crimes due to their exposure to the tougher elements of many mainland facilities, many agreed.

“We don’t want to lose what we’ve got,” Ramsay said.

There are some diversionary programs, such as giving first-time non-violent offenders civil citations rather than booking them into detention. If an offender receives a citation, he or she has to fulfill several obligations, such as performing community service, paying restitution to the victim and abiding by a curfew. If the obligations are not met, the state can revisit the case.

Ward said his office wasn’t being kept apprised of how those who receive citations are progressing with their obligations and was promised he’d get status reports from the Sheriff’s Office from now on.

Much of Wednesday’s discussion focused on mental health and early intervention to get troubled youths on the right track before they fall into a life of crime. Other issues that arose Wednesday:

• The need for a Keys facility where troubled youths could be taken involuntarily for mental-health evaluations if there is reason to believe he or she is mentally ill or an immediate danger to himself or herself or others. This is commonly known as the Baker Act. Currently, such youths have to go to mainland facilities for such evaluations, which results in several problems, such as parents having to take days off work to travel out of the Keys to deal with the situation.
• According to a University of South Florida database for Baker Act intakes, there were 27 “involuntary examinations” of Monroe County residents age 17 and younger in fiscal year 2015-16, the last year for which numbers were available.
• Drug-testing in the schools for students who participate in extracurricular activities. Such testing was to be implemented for student athletes for the current school year but Hurricane Irma derailed that, Dick said. He said he believes it will be implemented for the 2018-19 school year and then possibly later be expanded for students in activities other than sports.

According to the Department of Juvenile Justice’s Office of Research and Data Integrity, during calendar year 2017, 26 youths were admitted to the Keys Juvenile Detention Center. Eight were deemed low risk to re-offend, eight moderate risk to re-offend, three moderate-to-high risk to re-offend and seven high risk to re-offend.

The most common felonies for which detainees were admitted were armed robbery, burglary and felony drug counts. More than half the admissions were for technical/non-law offenses such as contempt of court or a pick-up order (arrest warrant).

The same year, there were 72 days when the center had no youths, 67 days when it had one, 59 days when it had  two, 41 days when it had three and 14 days when it had four. That adds up to 253 days. The rest of the days of the year, the center was not open for use, for example, days impacted by Category 4 Hurricane Irma, which struck the Keys Sept. 10, said Mark Greenwald, director of research and data integrity for the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Contact: Public Information Officer Larry Kahn, (305) 289-2899.

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