JUVENILE REHABILITATION MEMBERS PLEAD TO SAVE "WORLD CLASS" SYSTEM

Audio only available at time of posting.

Amid talks of closures and conversions, a delegation of Federation juvenile rehabilitation members on Thursday asked legislators to reject those proposals in the governor's all-cuts budget.

"It's not prudent or efficient to throw the baby out with the bath water," said Federation Lobbyist Matt Zuvich.

"One vital component of our success is our ability to provide individualized treatment to kids who have complex needs," said Gabe Hall, a juvenile rehabilitation supervisor at Green Hill School in Chehalis and a member of Local 862. "To do this effectively there has to be a safe environment conducive to learning. Not even summer camp mixes young kids with older teens. Our formula has provided great outcomes, but its chemistry is fragile."

Closures or consolidation will put residents with a lower risk of re-offenders in with more hardened youthful offenders, said Brian McElfresh, a mental health coordinator at Maple Lane School in Grand Mound and a member of Local 1926.

"Does an unsophisticated resident at Naselle belong with the more hardened population at Green Hill or among the mental health population at Maple Lane School or the 13 and 14 year olds at Echo Glen?" he asked.

The proposed closure of Naselle Youth Camp in Pacific County would have a detrimental effect on the rest of the juvenile rehabilitation continuum of care, said Jerry Elliott, who works at the youth camp and is a member of Local 2263.

Its closure would have a "domino effect" leading to overcrowding elsewhere and problems for treatment, security and management of disruptive behavior, he said.

"Naselle Youth Camp is not underutilized, it is not disposable, it is not irrelevant in the continuum of care provided by JRA," Elliott said.

Brian Shirley, a juvenile rehabilitation residential counselor at the Oakridge Group Home in Lakewood and a member of Local 793, said "these community residential facilities are vital to the JRA continuum of care."

"The institutions, the group homes and parole are all intertwined," he said. "We all depend on the other legs of our treatment stool to provide the kind of care our complex kids need. Any reductions to direct services with one will harm effectiveness with another."

Juvenile parole services are also vital, where "now it's time to come home" for youthful offenders who have been rehabilitated, said Linnea Elmer, a juvenile rehabilitation community counselor in Olympia and a member of Local 443.

"In parole, we serve about 600 youth, many of them in the important 16 and 17-year-old age group," she said. "We need to get to them so they don't end up in adult prisons. We need to help their transition back into the community."

"But in the short-term, let's reject the governor's all-cuts strategy," McElfresh said. "Making cuts for the sake of cuts is penny-wise and pound-foolish."