COUNTY OFFICIALS PLAN TO SEEK MORE STATE HELP WITH JUVENILES

Cape Girardeau County officials will tell a statewide Juvenile Court Personnel Advisory Commission hearing Friday that the state needs to reassess its funding formula for juveniles and that the state will need to help fund regional juvenile detention centers.

Randall Rhodes, county juvenile officer, and Gerald Jones, presiding commissioner of the Cape Girardeau County Commission, will address the Juvenile Court Personnel Commission meeting beginning at 10 a.m. in the Sikeston Ramada Inn.

As outlined in a letter written to the Juvenile Court Personnel Commission by Rhodes and Jones May 15, the two officials also will tell the commission that an equitable salary system for Cape Girardeau County employees is made difficult by state mandates for juvenile officers. And they will say that the state should provide funding for any extra training required by the state for juvenile officers.

Rhodes and Jones will tell the commission that the state funding formula for juveniles is not being followed. The state is in arrears to the county approximately $16,232 since 1993 for money owed the county for detained juveniles. The statutory rate is $14 per day per detained juvenile. The state has paid only $11 per day.

"This issue is probably of lead importance to Cape County," said Rhodes, "because if the state will reimburse the county at the statutory rate, it would help us decide how we're going to fund a new juvenile detention facility."

Jones and Rhodes will also say to the commission that the Cape Girardeau Juvenile Detention Center is approaching 30 years of age and is "antiquated by modern correctional standards." In their letter they said that the Cape Girardeau facility and others around the state "operate at capacity and are ripe for civil litigation."

The two officials indicated in their letter that Cape Girardeau County and other counties "are approaching a major influx of numbers into the juvenile justice system, which will require additional man hours, bed space and ingenuity."

Thus, Jones and Rhodes will tell the commission that regional juvenile facilities could be the answer but that the counties will need state as well as federal aid to build such facilities.

"A regional facility would be an excellent situation for Cape Girardeau County and other participating counties," said Jones on Monday. "Cost factors would be such, though, that we would have to have state and federal help."

In addition, Rhodes and Jones will tell the commission that the state is causing problems for counties because the state demands that juvenile officers be paid according to state guidelines, even though the county provides 95 percent of the funding for salaries.

These state guidelines for juvenile officers create a problem because the county can't afford to pay all county employees at the same rate. Rhodes and Jones want the state to "look at either funding the necessary positions to operate the juvenile system, or get out of the business altogether and not dictate what should be a fair rate of pay."

Jones said, "We want the state to either get in or get out."

Jones and Rhodes will tell the commission that if the state is going to demand increased training for juvenile officers, as it has for other law enforcement personnel, the counties want the state to provide the funds for the training.