When St. Louis County Family Court administrator Ben Burkemper took over the job in late 2015, he knew something was wrong.
“Within the first couple of months, I noticed there were about 35 kids in detention and about 34 were black,” Burkemper said. “That was shocking to me.”
That snapshot that alarmed Burkemper was not just a coincidence. In July of 2015, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) had released a report finding a pattern of constitutional violations in the county’s juvenile justice practices.
“The Justice Department found that the family court fails to provide constitutionally required due process to children appearing for delinquency proceedings, and that the court’s administration of juvenile justice discriminates against black children,” the report said.
Their findings included patterns of failure to ensure children in the court system had adequate legal representation, failure of ensure children who entered legal pleas knew what they were agreeing to, and failure to make adequate determinations of probable cause. They also found that the court’s internal structure was “rife with conflicts of interest” and that there was a pattern of disparate treatment of black children who entered the court system.
In that environment, Burkemper was looking for a way to make a change.
He found it in a program that had been on the Family Court’s radar since about 2006, but never fully implemented: the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). JDAI is a program of the non-profit Annie E. Casey Foundation aimed at keeping families and communities together by reducing the population in juvenile detention. The model is used in nearly 300 counties nationwide.
Burkemper said he knew he needed everyone in the Family Court staff to be on board for the changes implementing JDAI would require. He initially faced reluctance from some of the court’s staff, but everyone is now united.
“My father told me a long time ago that if you don’t have resistance, you’re not making change,” Burkemper said.
Thea Sherry, the administrative judge of the Family Court, said some in the organization have long been committed to the ideas behind JDAI. For the last few years, though, she said that commitment has become an institutional practice.
“JDAI is reaching out to the community to keep these children in their homes with their families,” Sherry said.
Alternatives to juvenile detention might include electronic monitoring, home visits from court workers, referrals to appropriate crisis services, and intensive in-home therapy.
Sherry is given recommendations from the court’s juvenile officers about what would be most appropriate for a child who comes before her court, but the ultimate decision rests with her. That decision involves weighing the mission to keep as many children as possible in the community against any possible risk that they might hurt other community members.
“You’re trying to balance the needs of the child, the needs of the family, if there is a victim you need to hear the voice of the victim as well,” Sherry said. “We’re not trying to punish these kids, we’re trying to help them.”
Sherry said these alternatives, which can involve substantial involvement in the lives of the young offender’s whole family, meet with mixed reactions from parents. However, even some of those who are initially reluctant come to see the benefits.
“It always makes me feel terrific when I hear a mother say, ‘I can’t thank you enough,’” Sherry said.
Tymesha Buckner-Dobynes, the director of court programs in Family Court, oversees the implementation of JDAI. She said the practices of JDAI can help reduce racial disparities in the court system.
“Many of the kids of color have direct benefit if they are involved in our system,” Buckner-Dobynes said.
In 2016, the court entered into an agreement with the DOJ to address the problems identified in its report. Requirements included, among others, more training more juvenile justice officers, standardized legal proceedings, data reporting and holding public meetings. The DOJ declined to comment on the ongoing implementation.
Rick Gaines is the head juvenile officer for the court; he and his deputy officers work most directly with juveniles when they come into contact with the court system. They make recommendations on whether the child should be detained, a process that uses the Juvenile Detention Assessment t Tool (JDAT).
The JDAT is intended to take much of the subjectivity out of the recommendation process. It considers factors like the crime committed, the individual’s previous record and any history of not appearing in court. Those factors produce a number that tells the officers
Gaines also considers it part of his mission under JDAI’s model to talk to others, including law enforcement, about how they can get behind the mission, and why they should.
“We should be working with law enforcement, schools, on how to work with kids way before it gets to the point where a referral has to generated for the juvenile court process,” Gaines said. “We do our best in partnership with our agencies to try and start the discussion on, you know, if you see these kids coming down the pike, how can we intervene way before it gets to that crisis mode?”
On February 8, Buckner-Dobynes and other representatives of the Family Court hosted the second in a series of JDAI Community Collaborative Meetings, intended to bring together stakeholders from the St. Louis County community to discuss the program’s progress and goals.
The meeting was attended by officials from the County Council and County Executive’s offices, employees of area school districts and law enforcement officers, among others. Presenters focused on strategies responding to the DOJ’s report intended to minimize racial and ethnic disparities.
“I think we all feel much more positive about where we are going,” Sherry told the audience. “Change is hard work, and I know you all know that.”
There will be another Community Collaborative Meeting this May. By then, Buckner-Dobynes said, they hope to see even more participation from people in the community, including parents.
“This is a very exciting time for you,” Buckner-Dobynes said. “We’ve created that interest community-wide.”
Family Court Judge Margaret Donnelly shared a statistic at the meeting that seemed to encapsulate the mission of JDAI. On Feb. 8, 2017, she said, there were 29 individuals in juvenile detention. That morning, there were nine.
