I didn't think he had it on his plate either, DDD, but I'm thinking more and more that might have been on his plate for a while. Now, when you refer to state juvie prison- you realize that is what my son is in and this is what is meant by "committed to state Department of Juvenile Justice", right? Juvie is detention- the juvenile equivalent to jail. difficult child is on his second commitment to state Department of Juvenile Justice. From what other parents have "mentioned" while waiting around at visitation, the cheeking and trading of medications is VERY common in these facilities. Ans Susie is right as well, about staff being corrupt. Not all- but since difficult child has been committed the first time, staff have been caught having sex with wards (the principal of one of the schools beleive it or not) and a nurse at one facility had an "affair" with one of the wards and gave him a flipping key to break out. I put affair in quotes because that's how the newspaper worded it. If it had been a "free" female girl and a grown man, it would have been worded much differently, I'm sure. And these are just the stories that have made the newspaper. A nurse gives medications in regular working hours but are not there to give medications in evenings or weekends or holidays, so regular staff does it. If that isn't bad enough, when difficult child was on medications for BiPolar (BP), the facility RAN OUT of lithium. (A medication that is never supposed to be quit cold turkey.) And 10 days later, still hadn't gotten any back in.
Budget cuts- in this state the vast majority were in 3 areas- sd programs for spec need kids, mental health, and at-risk juvenile programs. All the rest of the cuts combined didn't come close to these. It really proved to me how the people in this state feel about things and why I had been feeling like I was having such a hard time getting people in the "systems" to care but hitting a brick wall.