And, again, I say....

[klmno]

It's the person at the central DJJ office who's responsible for overseeing local CSUs and their programs that is apparently doing nothing!! The mayor shouldn't have had to step in for this.

I know I've worn the interest out here but I can't help it being such a thorn in my side. Maybe my letters were sent out at a good time though. They should be recceived by the legislation and state agencies today or tomorrow. I'm sure all those in the GA working on juvenile laws and state DJJ know about this incident. When I send the complaint to the fed DOJ, which is next on the list, I'll certainly refer to this, too, as evidence that they are rec'g fed funding but aren't providing adequate oversight or holding perople accountable for doing what they should. The loophole becomes more obvious everyday. Hopefully stories like this will add credibility to the portion of my letters that indirectly pointed out that when CSU personnel document something or self-report things, it should be verified by higher authorities.

From the Richmond Times Dispatch today
Richmond mayor fires head of juvenile detention center

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones has fired the superintendent of the city's embattled juvenile detention center, a week after the state put the facility on probation for the second time in three years.

Dianne Gadow was "relieved of her duties" as superintendent of the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center on Monday, the mayor announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Press Secretary Tammy D. Hawley confirmed that Gadow had been terminated as a city employee after 22 months on the job. The center's acting assistant superintendent, Wayne N. Williams, was transferred out of the department, Hawley added.

Richmond named Jack Scott, executive director of the Crater Youth Commission in Petersburg, as interim superintendent at the center to replace Gadow. The city also appointed Charles Lampkin, a member of its justice services staff, as interim assistant superintendent.

The Virginia State Board of Juvenile Justice put the center on probation Jan. 10 after concerns were raised about the safety of residents and employees at the 60-bed center, as well as lack of documented training for its staff.

The Virginia State Conference of the NAACP raised the concerns with city officials in September on behalf of more than two dozen employees. NAACP Executive Director King Salim Khalfani welcomed Gadow's departure but said the city needs to go further.

"That's one good step, but some more people need to be terminated as well," Khalfani said Tuesday. "She wasn't acting by herself."

Gadow was paid $88,000 annually as of July 1, according to city records.

In November, an investigation by the city inspector general's office confirmed problems at the center that include unreliable locks on the doors of residents' rooms, malfunctioning intercom and video-monitoring systems, inadequate security fencing and procedures, and staff training that couldn't be documented.

Many of the problems had been identified by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice in early 2009, but the inspector general's investigation found that corrective action plans "were not implemented in a timely manner."

"They finally held them accountable," Khalfani said from the state office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The NAACP contends staff have not been properly trained and that training records have been falsified. Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring is investigating the allegation of forgery.

Khalfani said he met with 25 employees of the center over seven weeks to document problems at the facility, built in 1996 on Oliver Hill Way in Shockoe Bottom.

"Everyone in there knows what training they've had and what they haven't had," he said.

The city has submitted a corrective action plan to the state that will be overseen by Chuck Kehoe, director of the Richmond Department of Justice Services.

"Our aim is to get the center in order quickly," Jones said Tuesday. "We want to end our probation as soon as possible and provide the proper care for those in need of services."

"Leadership and management are responsible for getting the center back on track," he added. "We have made the necessary changes for that to be accomplished."

Jones said the city has begun mandatory retraining of the center's staff over the next eight weeks. He said the city also is continuing to make repairs and perform critical maintenance at the center.

Last month, Richmond awarded a $344,000 emergency contract to replace malfunctioning intercom systems, install new computer equipment, and updated video recording and monitoring systems.

Khalfani contends that the center remains unsafe for residents, employees and visitors.

"That place is a tragedy waiting to happen," he said.

(Underlining was added by me.)

Oh- and here's a headline from last year....

Department of Justice report blasts Virginia's mental health services
The Department of Justice says Virginia needlessly institutionalizes people with developmental disabilities, and that it costs about four times as much as providing mental health treatment in the community.

[lovemysons]

UP for Klmno : )

[StepTo2]

k, I am so not surprised by this.

In a way, we got a decent juvenile court system; the judge is fair... But a little TOO lenient.

At least our POs do their jobs...

[klmno]

TY! After I read this article, I started poking around the internet to find our state inspector general's name and contact info. Do you know that we don't have one and nearly 50% of the states don't? The IG referred to below was a city's, not the state's. I looked on the state attny general's website and it says the AG is there to "defend the state agencies and state policies". Uhmmm, well...they are really leaving me no choice but to take this to a fed level.

[InsaneCdn]

Go for it.

[susiestar]

Take that complaint federal. IMO these people have done nothing but abuse you and gfg from the first contact with them. I am proud that you have stuck it out, continued to ask questions and NOT just given in and given up and let them do what they want. You continue to ask for common sense and logic and reason to be applied to your son's case and for his rights to be respected and for him to be given the HELP he and you deserve.

You totally have my support.

[CrazyinVA]

In VA there are inspector generals for different agencies. There is no one head inspector general.

Here's the one that covers mental health:
OIG Homepage
and here's the one that covers juvenile justice:
Inspector General

The attorney general is basically the lawyer for the commonwealth. He represents the Governor and the agencies, not the individual citizens.

Hope that helps point you in some directions. I wish I had advice, but the only experience I have is the transition from partial custody by DSS in an RTC, to home / therapeutic day school. I had the choice of group home or home, and my county was very cooperative (once I won the fight for RTC, anyway). I'm sorry you're still getting the runaround

[klmno]

Thx, S & Crazy.

Crazy- I did find where a state IG was approved/passed into lasw in the 2011 session of the GA- of course, it still hasn't come to fruitation yet. The problem with each agency having it's own IG is that they are being paid by the agency and working with others in the same agency they are there to investigate for problems. The state gov is focused more on CYA than accountability. A lot has come out just in the past 5 years on DJJ- between the sex abuse, crooked staff, the MH, the major cost issues, and now these articles in the past year....they will have to clean house at some point. I know it will be after my gfg ages out but still...


And another thing I noticed- people in the Youth Services Commission (who are there to direct funding for at risk youth and line up providers-- who are private businesses that specialize in these behavior type 'counseling') sure seem to get jobs with djj often. When I see that and things like PO committing to this reentry program before even reading gfg's file, it sure makes me wonder how deep this goes- especially after hearing about that judge in Pennsylvania a couple of years ago. I don't think our judges are crooked here- but I think this state is very business oriented and job oriented and they care a whole lot more about that than our at-risk youth or delinquent juveniles. I;m taking notes and will write the letter to DOJ and ACLU this weekend- just to give me more time to KISS and still point out what I think should be investigated.

Maybe it will help my grandchild/gfg's child someday. LOL!

[CrazyinVA]

All true. There are many complaints about not having an independent IG office. Still, it might be worth also sending letters to the individual IG's offices (if you haven't already, can't remember which agencies you're writing), just to show DOJ and other feds that you went up the "chain of command" and didn't get satisfaction. I suspect they'll ask if you did that, so may as well head them off on it. They're big on chain of command.

[klmno]

I sent to my 2 state reps from the jurisdiction I live in now at the GA offices, the state commission on youth at the GA, the dept of health profs (isn't that irony- they changed our MH dept to Behavioral health, yet psychologists, SWs, etc with licenses to do 'real' therapy fall under dept of health- yet another way to disguise MH issues), the director of djj (she can pass it off to her IG if she wants - the way I look at it, she's the one responsible), the director of public safety who doubles as the leader of prisoner and juvenile offender re-entry initiative, and the two legislative reps who lead the committee on district courts, which work in the GA and lead the committee that advises district courts, including juvenile courts; also they work under the state supreme court for matters not involving typical appeals but in matters concerning district court rules and policies. I thought that was imporatant due to the vague line between juvie CSU/djj and the local juvie courts. I have a bit of a problem with POs having more power than dss or equal power to a judge. I find it hard to believe that's the intent of the law.

The ombudsman I spoke to is the liason in DJJ who a parent is supposed to call if there are grievances about a djj facility- I called her last week b/c I thought she could point me in the right direction b/c I couldn't find a contact person or procedure when it's not a djj facility I'm concerned about- it's CSU personnel. She told me they have none for that- she gave me the name of the djj person in charge of all juvie CSU personnel but after thinking about that, I decided he's the one that should get fired, not contacted. When I looked up djj's IG online, it says he's there to investigate abuse in facilties and things like that- so I went straight to the director. It is part of my beef that they have no one to investigate and oversee CSU personnel and hold them accountable- or no one is doing it.

Next on the list are the DOJ civil rights division (fed) and ACLU.

I kind of felt like I was wasting my time with these state people however, I reminded myself that 1) they need all the feedback a person will give so they can see how bad this situation is 2) maybe it will be another seed that leads to a change in state laws or cleaning house in djj someday, and 3) I figured the fed gov reps would want to see I made some effort on the state level.

Fortunately, I can go straight to state level since gfg is considered a ward of the state as being committed to state djj. I have looked and looked for others on the state level but honestly, I don't think anyone in this state has the llabs to do anything.

Crazy- if you (or anyone else) can think of someone else or another agency that could help, please let me know.

I looked up the fed office for civil rights and that's actually under doj, then I called them and they told me since it is court officers that I feels has violated my and gfg's rights, it falls under the criminal section of the civil rights division of DOJ. Additionally, she said it sounded like there might be violations re the fed funding they are getting.