Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103180076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A Roanoke judge had just sentenced a teen-ager to detention, a court official said. Was there room for the youth at the home?
There wasn't.
In what has become a common problem, the 21-bed facility was holding 28 youths - a level that superintendent Mark Johnson refuses to exceed.
Scanning the list of youths being held on charges of drug dealing, burglary and malicious wounding that day, Johnson searched for someone who might possibly be eligible for transfer or release.
There wasn't.
"I couldn't find one kid who I thought was qualified for an accelerated release," Johnson said. "These kids need to be locked up."
As it turned out, a judge released another youth at a hearing a short time later, creating a vacancy. "We lucked out," Johnson said.
Still, the events that day represent an all-too-common scenario. Overcrowding at the home, which serves the Roanoke Valley, hasn't reached a crisis yet, Johnson said. But it's getting there.
Sooner or later, Johnson expects, there won't be anywhere to put a youth sentenced to the detention home, off U.S. 460 over the Botetourt County line. And that means Johnson could possibly go to jail on a contempt-of-court charge for refusing a judge's order to detain a youth, he said.
In fact, Johnson even packed a duffel bag and brought it to work last spring during a time of extended overcrowding, half expecting to end up in jail.
But he hopes to take a more diplomatic approach.
"This is not an adversarial situation where it's the detention home against the judges or the Sheriff's Department," he said. "Everyone is in the same dilemma concerning this."
Late last year, Johnson took his concerns to Roanoke City Council, telling members that an expansion of the home will become a necessity within the next year to 18 months.
Some of the reasons why:
The home, designed for a 75 percent capacity rate, averaged 103 percent last year. This year, it's expected to rise to 115 percent.
Last year, the home had to turn away 200 young people - including 49 from the city - because there was nowhere to put them. Officials expect to refuse more than 300 juveniles this year.
When a youth is turned away, he or she most often goes to another detention home in Christiansburg, Staunton or Danville. Last year, it cost the city more than $30,000, and the amount this year is expected to rise to $50,000.
At the current rate, it won't be long before the home hits 130 percent capacity - an unacceptable level by anyone's standards. "That's the point where things are basically out of control," Johnson said.
Officials attribute much of the overcrowding problem to crack cocaine, which is taking a frightening toll on the city's youth.
Unlike in years past, when juveniles might be held for relatively minor offenses, the detainees today are "older kids, larger kids, angrier kids, more experienced kids," Johnson said.
Not only has crack produced more violent young criminals, it has also created rival, loosely knit groups.
During the day, when detainees are released from their cells, overcrowding means more opportunities for conflicts between those groups.
"We don't have the luxury of segregating those rivalries," Johnson said.
To cope with the problem before the home is enlarged, officials are turning to more outreach programs and placements at group homes such as Youth Haven in Roanoke.
Some youths are being sentenced to serve weekends to alleviate overcrowding, but that approach can backfire.
Johnson said a youth who once reported to the home on a Friday to serve a weekend in detention was sent back home because the facility was full.
"I wonder what that kid is thinking about the system," Johnson said. "I wonder if he feels as if he's getting away with something."
To some, 28 juveniles in a home with 21 beds might not sound like a serious overcrowding problem. After all, jails around the state have been double- and triple-bunking inmates for years.
But detaining juveniles involves an entirely different principle, Johnson said.
"We're not dealing with people who are burnouts who have been in and out of the system all their lives," he said. "We're dealing with young people who are still making some life decisions."
With that in mind, the home's goal is not just to detain youths, but to offer them treatment. And that's why Johnson draws the line at 28 detainees.
During the day, juveniles are released from cells to spend time in the home's common area, in classrooms or in other supervised activities. "Our staff is mandated to be with the kids all day long," Johnson said.
At night, they return to 8 1/2-by-11-foot cells for lockdown. And more and more often, there have been mattresses waiting in double-bunked cells, taking up most of the limited floor space.
"If I were a young person, it would be humiliating to sleep on a concrete floor within 18 inches of a urinal, where the person in the bunk next to you has to step over you to get out of bed," Johnson said.
"We just don't want that kind of environment."
by CNB