Just about a year ago, Juvenile Detainees at the Doña Ana County Detention Center were moved from the Juvenile Facility to a portion of the adult facility due to low staffing levels at the Detention Center.
The Doña Ana County Detention Center is authorized to have 185 officers, last May year when the decision was made to close the juvenile detention center staffing levels got as low as 139 officers. Instead of having the recommended 28-30 officers staffing the juvenile facility, there were only 12.
Now with 172 officers and 28 officers for the juvenile facility, Doña Ana County Detention Center Director Chris Barela, says they are opening the facility a year ahead of schedule.
“Right now our attrition rate is still higher than we want,” Barela said. “But, it’s not as bad as it used to be and that’s about 4 a month. At that time, sometimes it was as high as 7,8,9 sometimes, and so it was real difficult to keep staff at that time, since the step pay compensation plan has gone into effect, and HR has gone into the recruitment processes, and helped us with bringing them in and all the different processes that go with that, we’ve been able to stay ahead of that.”
Barela says they are continuing work with HR to monitor the staffing levels.
“We’ve maintained communication with one another,” Barela said. “To make sure that we don’t start to suffer some setbacks in our attrition. So, in other words, if we start seeing our attrition rate going up, we’re going to quickly research as to why that’s occurring.”
A little over $75,000 was spent last year to make sure the portion of the adult facility the juveniles would be staying in was separated by both sight and sound. But, Carli Romero, a member of the board of directors with CAFé, says many community members were concerned about the effect being in the adult facility would have on the youth housed there.
“We know as was shared today,” Romero said. “That the adult detention center is much more volatile, and probably pretty traumatic for youth to be inside of. Which can be really triggering, and activate a lot of anger, and fear, and frustration.”
Doña Ana County Commissioner Wayne Hancock says the Commission made the issue a priority because of community concerns, but it was a better option then sending juveniles to other counties.
“I think it was a difficult choice to make,” Hancock said. “But I think it was the right choice, it made it possible for families to be closer to their children. And for the attorneys to be closer to their clients.”
Detention Center Director Barela says now that staffing levels are where they should be, they are making sure it stays that way.
“We’re also working for a plan for the future,” Barela said. “Are there going to be more juveniles in the future coming into this facility, and if so we need to create some type of strategic plan, so that as this facility increases in population, we need to increase the officer staffing level at that time, and we need to do that ahead of time, not when it happens.”
Carli Romero says she is concerned that officer retention wasn’t being looked at closely in the past, and community members intend to keep a close eye on the facility.
“This isn’t something that the county was able to do quietly,” Romero said. “Or without any backlash, or community attention, they are very aware the community was not happy with the choices that were made, and so I think they are going to take more proactive steps in the future. I also don’t think that much accountability was taken for where those gaps were in the past.”
The Juvenile Detention center houses and average of 15 to 18 juveniles at a time.
