Summit County juvenile court aims for diversion
WONDERING IF YOUR PARENTING SKILLS ARE WORKING? WELL, SUMMIT COUNTIES’ JUVENILE COURT IS OFFERING PARENTING SKILLS THROUGH THEIR PARENT PROJECT.
SHAQUIENA DAVIS HAS THE STORY.
Summit County juvenile courts is aiming to move towards diversion programs. Youth court diversion programs are intended to offer an alternative to the traditional juvenile justice system and school disciplinary proceedings.
“To place the youth in a more service based environment, where not only will they be held accountable for what they do but they’re going to be given services and programing to direct them more productively,” said Don Ursetti, director of community outreach.
The Summit County Court of Common Pleas Juvenile Division is led by Judge Linda Teodosio. Judge Teodosio has been the bench since 2003 and over her years she received local, statewide and national recognition for her innovative programming and progressive approach to juvenile dispositions and rehabilitation.
Among the unique programs Judge Teodosio has introduced at the Summit County Juvenile Court are Restore Court, a program that addresses youth who become Court-involved but have been identified as victims of human trafficking; the Crossroads Program, a specialized docket designed for youth with co-occurring mental illness and/or substance dependence; the Family Resource Center which provides case management which links youth and families to support services in the community; and New Paths Probation for youth with developmental delays.
One of the programs at the detention center is called the The Parent Project. The project was founded 30 years ago by psychologist Roger Morgan. The goal is to develop parent-training programs for parents raising difficult or out-of-control children. They provide effective programs that are affordable for every parent.
The Parent Project is the largest court mandated diversion program in the country and the least expensive. There are two programs that are used to help direct and guide parents on better parenting methods. Loving Solutions is a 10 week program for parents with children between 5-10. It has special accommodations for ADD and ADHD issues as well as more difficult children. Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior is a 10 to 16 week program designed for parents raising difficult or out-of-control adolescent children, ages 10 and up.
Parents meet one night per week for two to three hours where they do an activity based curriculum that allows parents to learn and practice behavior management techniques at home. The Parent Project at Summit County meets in Akron Thursday nights from 6 to 9 pm.
“Any parent that’s having problems with strong will youth whether it’s male or female juvenile are invited to participate in the Parent project whether you’re court involved or not court involved,” said Jimmy Oliver, the family liaison and CBT case manager.
Oliver also said it would benefit the juvenile justice system because it would lessen the amount of kids coming through the system.
According to superintendent Melissa Gerney, in 2018 there was approximately 450 youth held in the detention center. She said there was more that came through the center but weren’t held there. In 2017, there were 1,845 juveniles that were brought to the center but only 561 were held. The average stay at the detention center was 12.8 days in 2017.
Once a juvenile is brought to detention they go through the Intake process which consists of reviewing all paperwork and having the Detention Risk Assessment completed to determine whether the juvenile should be held or released.
At the detention center they have a structured system like any other school just with a few different classes in order to engage the students and restructure their behavior.
“We have a lunch period, we have visitation, they have court hearings, we have yoga, we have art, we partner with Kent State on a regular basis to do writing and poetry classes here,” said Gerney.
The detention center also offers drug, alcohol and mental health counseling led by the onsite staff. The counseling is offered in the evening and is supposed to help equip the children with viable skills they can use once they are released.
“What we try to do while the youth are in the detention center is to correct the thinking errors that brought them here to begin with,” said Ursetti.
According to the Office of Justice Programs, the juvenile arrest rate for all offenses reached its highest level in the last two decades in 1996, and then declined 72% by 2017. The total number of crimes committed by juveniles in 2017 was 2,407.8.
At Summit County the staff hopes that their diversion methods are helping the youth learn how to re-adjust back into the community, with new coping methods, once they are released. The diversion is used to give them better skills so they don’t repeat what happened when they were incarcerated.
“There are multifaceted programming that the youth are introduced to during the course of their stay in the detention so that when they are re-entering the community they are better equipped to handle those situations,” said Ursetti.
Jan. 26, 2018, Phillip Morris from The Plain Dealer published an article titled “Cuyahoga County juvenile detention facility is a ticking time bomb.” Morris talked to a detention officer at Cuyahoga County who described the faculty as “hostile” and “dangerous.”
Morris also talked about how the superintendent, Karmin Bryant, had just retired after three decades of being there. He also cited a report issued by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department in November 2017 that found the juvenile detention facility in disarray under her watch. The report documented a dangerous lack of readily available information on inmates’ criminal history and suspected gang ties. There was a revelation that little effort was made to keep rival gang members separated.
While the Summit County detention center might have many programs that are geared towards helping students and parents there was little data to help support or deny their claim. However, none of the staff working there described the facility as “hostile” or “dangerous” and even talked about how they hope they are helping youth better themselves.
Morgan Hallam- Written & Infographic
Shaqueina Davis- Audio & Photos