Juvenile detention center providing much-needed services

The Mississippi County Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Charleston, Mo., is alive and well. Although six juvenile detention centers in Missouri lost their state funding for the 2012 calendar year due to a controversial Circuit Court Budget Committee decision, our facility was not one of those that lost its funding. In fact, our juvenile detention center has played a major role in the state of Missouri. In May of this year, our circuit was selected as one of only three sites to be named a Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Model Replication Site, and the only one in Southeast Missouri.

An article published in the Southeast Missourian on May 31 of this year seems to have led to some confusion as that article gave the impression that there would be only one juvenile detention center left in all of Southeast Missouri. Hopefully, with the publication of this guest column, you, the public, will get some interesting information concerning the services we provide to juveniles placed in our detention center.

The Mississippi County Regional Juvenile Detention Center currently houses juveniles from seven Missouri counties and two Illinois counties, and we also house youths from the Missouri Division of Youth Services. We are a 16-bed secure facility with a state-of-the-art educational classroom, a large updated library, an outdoor recreation area and a highly trained and motivated staff. Even though we are a secure facility, and the safety and security of the juveniles is our topmost priority, we also encourage positive juvenile interaction during their stay in detention.

We do not just "warehouse" the juveniles detained in our facility. School and staff-delivered programming fill up most of the juveniles' day. Our school is open all year and is staffed by certified teachers from the Charleston School District. We have a full library that was updated with a $6,000 grant from the Laura Bush Foundation last year. A licensed clinical social worker runs a three hour group session on emotional health and skills development once a week. Our detention staff also provide an additional four hours of programming each day on subjects like moral decision making, positive peer relationships, anger management, communication skills, hygiene and a wide variety of social skills needed to help them become better students and citizens when they return to their communities.

Our facility uses a cognitive behavior training program that operates 24 hours a day. In a nutshell, this program offers the juveniles a chance to practice the skills they are being taught. The juveniles' behaviors are observed and graded in five specific areas during their entire time in detention. These grades enable a juvenile to advance through each of our three cognitive behavior training levels; each level provides a few extra privileges for the juvenile such as increased dayroom/TV time, a later bedtime and increased supervised access to the library and computers. These "little" extra privileges mean a lot to the juveniles and they try hard to follow the rules and demonstrate appropriate behavior to earn them; this helps us in our goal of instilling social skills and self-pride in their accomplishments so they will continue this practice upon their release.

Female juveniles in detention are involved in a gender-specific program called the Girls Circle Group. This is a model program approved by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in Washington, D.C. Girls are given information and discuss matters specifically related to the needs of at-risk girls, such as body image and peer relationships, just to name a few. This is accomplished in a group setting, or individually, by specially trained female facilitators. The Girls Circle Group is also provided in our local communities by these same facilitators and many of the girls who attended in detention actually ask if they may continue attending group meetings once they are released from detention.

I'd also like to "tip my hat" to Randy Rhodes and the rest of the 32nd Circuit's juvenile court staff. I've learned a lot from the way they have run their juvenile detention center and incorporated many aspects of their practices here. They have done, and continue to do, many wonderful things for the juveniles they work with, and I wish them success in their future endeavors to continue to provide the programming and educational opportunities that many of the juveniles they work with desperately need.

I wish I had more space here to talk about juvenile detention and how the Mississippi County Regional Juvenile Detention Center operates, but hopefully you've gotten a little insight into the things we do. Community involvement and awareness of the obstacles facing our youths are paramount to finding ways to reach these young people and preparing them to be productive members of our communities.

Kevin B. Hess is the superintendent of the Mississippi County Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Charleston, Mo.