Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Advisory Board [in person or remote]

Today’s Noon meeting is being held remotely via Microsoft Teams and in person at the Cook County Government Building, 22nd floor, Conference room F

I’ll be documenting remotely via Teams.

Legistar has remote meeting details and supporting documentation: https://cook-county.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=41782&GUID=555F2E80-B3BD-4F80-BD91-083713ED292D

Today’s agenda. Source file (PDF) can be found at the Legistar link above. https://t.co/OQxAkFVisy

I’m in the Teams meeting with about 20 other people. There’s a webcam of the meeting room that also holds about 20 people.

We are waiting for the meeting to begin.

The meeting is called to order at 12:08pm.

Briana Payton calls roll, establishing quorum.

There’s an audio echo coming from somewhere. https://t.co/SgNFsNZ6Cb

In-person meeting attendees introduce themselves. I can’t really make out most of the names/titles.

Sounds like most of the in-person attendees are from JTDC.

January meeting minutes are discussed.

(It wasn’t clear if the minutes were approved as there was no vote.)

Supt Dixon says 44% of child residents are out of JTDC in the first 72 hours.

Dixon says they are gradually adding events but are still being cautious about COVID-19.

A doctor for JTDC presents some COVID stats.
270 cases
2 hospitalizations
1 currently in isolation
Overall positivity rate of about 2%
JTDC still has kids coming in with COVID-19
At least ~190 have received one vaccination.
23 received boosters

A former resident (2010-2012) of JTDC says he was an automatic transfer. Before entering JTDC, he heard it was like adult jail like Cook County. However, he was surprised be the positive support and staff he encountered at JTDC. They beat their case in 2012. https://t.co/4F6OCBUFZx

The 2.5-year resident says staff and counselors helped keep the residents sane. Many of the residents experience mental health challenges but found they could relate to the staff, many of whom come from their neighborhoods.

The former resident was able to graduate from a CPS school after leaving JTDC.

The former resident says they’ve just received their Bachelors degree in business and mentors at the Firehouse Community Art Center.

A parent says their son is currently at JTDC and says he is on the honor role and hopes to participate in a JTDC barber shop training program. They have a private attorney, and the son has been at JTDC for about 8 months. https://t.co/e8YT4f2Azl

Another resident parent says they’ve had positive experience with JTDC. Son has been a resident for about 9 months, receives mental health counseling. The parent says they’ve had positive experiences interacting with JTDC staff and counselors. “They truly care about these kids.” https://t.co/UeRuLV0U5V

The parent stresses that JTDC residents are kids (stressing the word). They even had to shorten a recent visit because their son wanted to attend a comedic performance organized by JTDC staff.

Note: Doctor speaking for JTDC earlier was Dr. Kenneth Soyemi as the staff have stated in the Teams chat.

Same parents says JTDC visitation requires multiple temperature checks and mask requirements. One recent visit had to be canceled, because there was a positive COVID test in their son’s group, and so they were on lockdown. They say JTDC is taking the COVID protocols seriously.

Dr. Amanda Klonsky says she works for a UCLA group that collects COVID data for detainees and used to work in JTDC. Klonsky says she heard about a JTDC COVID outbreak after return to school in a previous meeting. She’s just asking for clarification on what exactly was situation.

Klonsky asks for more info on how vaccination rates have gone up and if there are benchmarks and targets.

Response from JTDC was that vaccination requires parent consent – they alone don’t have the authority to vaccinate residents. Dr. Soyemi says JTDC has reached out to parents and even had a town hall meeting regarding COVID vaccination information.

Soyemi says they were pressured to begin in-person classes for JTDC residents. Concern was voiced about low vaccination rates, but school started up anyway. Within 6 weeks there was an outbreak.

The main issue holding back vaccination rates seems to be lack of parental consent. They want to be at 70% vaccinated but are only at 30%.

“They” as in JTDC staff.

Before in-person school resumed, teachers would go up to the individual units.

In-person programs are currently limited to the individual pods. Mixing of pods is not yet cleared.

JTDC is saying vast majority of incoming residents refuse the vaccine. Of the kids who say they want the vaccine, their parents can still say No.

JTDC says some residents were shocked when they were shown a video depicting a Black female scientist who was instrumental in COVID vaccine development. It seems anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are popular at the facility.

A parent asks why they were asked if their son had a private defender by another meeting attendee. That meeting attendee says they worked in JTDC for decades and saw how a defense attorney can impact the outcome of the resident’s case. (1/2)

The former JTDC staff says they attended many residents’ cases acting as a character witness. One public defender asked her NOT to come to a resident’s court hearings. That resident was sentenced to decades in prison, just getting out recently. (2/2)

A parent who spoke positively of JTDC staff earlier says they are doing all they can regarding COVID safety. At the same time, they don’t have infinite resources or power. “This is a Cook County facility. This isn’t Beverly Hills.”

The parent also mentions that most kids are at JTDC only for a short while (although some for years), and that also impacts vaccination levels.

Dixon says he brought his staff to the meeting to publicly acknowledge their work, calling them outstanding. He says JTDC staff have to deal with situations most folks would not wish to, kids with problems most don’t know about.

Briana Payton asks about confinement time.

Dixon says JTDC enacted the “30-35 piece” already. It sounds that kids are removed for 5 minutes if confined for 30 minutes for a behavioral issue.

Dixon talks about the behavioral modification system and how they have pushed back bed times. The time depends on the resident’s “level” as defined by the behavioral modification system.

Payton asks about data tracking for room confinement. Dixon says they do record data and house it centrally in their office. Dixon says looking at the raw numbers doesn’t tell you anything without additional context. The data person is sick and couldn’t attend this meeting.

A parent talks about how the residents can feed off each other’s energy. So this can snowball confinement numbers, as one incident/resident can have a winding up effect on others.

JTDC has four levels: 1-4, with 4 having most privileges.

Dixon says JTDC strongly disagrees with a recent Equip for Equality. JTDC prepared a response to the report and will send it out. Dixon said that there is no issue with resident clothing shortages.

Looks like we are in the midst of the Q&A portion now.

A JTDC staff member talks about confinement, saying it is only used to ensure safety. Before this, Dixon was denying claims that JTDC is seeing confinement averages of 8 hours. https://t.co/ZpuzsiPLrT

JTDC staff says that the average resident who receives a “moving without permission” doesn’t just receive 8 hours confinement. It’s the behavior after that. For example, a resident moves without permission and then attacks another resident.

JTDC says violations and response data is available in digital format.

Dixon talks about JTDC auditors who told him everyone in the state should be doing what they’re doing.

A JTDC staff member calls for greater clarity and benchmarks in reports criticizing JTDC. Terms like “adequate” need to be represented as hard numbers/data. https://t.co/NvCc2rzvT6

A JTDC staff member says confinement is a very small portion of their procedures. They discuss the behavioral modification program and other programming like Zoom counseling available for residents. They have 35 kids in their pod, and not one is on confinement.

Dixon wanted to remind folks that a few years ago, the State cut a lot of resources for placement of JTDC residents, and the effects are cascading to the facility.

Payton is calling on JTDC to make their data more accessible by the public and offers to collaborate with JTDC in this effort.

Level 1 has 8pm bedtime. Dixon says they are waiting on programming information to push back the bedtime.

Savannah Felix brings up a recent DJJ report that found JTDC non-compliant regarding confinement. Dixon says there were multiple standards, and they were not compliant with a newly-created standard. Dixon says JTDC has complied with the new standards.

Dixon says police don’t sufficiently search detainees before JTDC intake, discussing a recent resident who was found with bags of marijuana on his person by JTDC staff.

JTDC staff invite Payton to schedule a facility visit, saying only looking at the data doesn’t help one to understand the real-life picture.

Dixon is saying transparency and trust go both ways in interactions with those who audit and monitor JTDC. It sounds like progress has been made, but there are still things to work together on. He repeats the invite to Payton.

The board asks for data regarding what communities JTDC detainees are coming from. They also offer to nominate and bring local mentors to JTDC to work with the kids.

The meeting concludes around 2:12pm.

This concludes my coverage for @CHIdocumenters. #CHIDocumenters

Please see https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/juvenile-temporary-detention-center for more information. Reply to this thread or DM me with any questions.