INGHAM TO SEEK FUNDS FOR JUVENILE DETENTION EFFORTS
INGHAM TO SEEK FUNDS FOR JUVENILE DETENTION EFFORTS
At its' meeting on July 23, the Ingham County Board of Commissioners approved placing on the November 5 ballot a request for a 6/10 mill property tax levy to increase the County's capacity to detain and house juveniles who are delinquent and disturbed. If approved, the funds would be used primarily to provide an additional 48 placements of delinquent and disturbed youth in non-secure treatment-oriented facilities. It would also alleviate some of the financial strain on the county's general fund by absorbing the cost of the county's 24 bed youth center.
On an annual basis, some 2,600 of the county's 60,000 youth are petitioned into Family Court because of juvenile delinquency charges or because they are in a neglected or abusive environment. Many of these youth remain in their homes under the supervision of the Family Court or the state's Family Independence Agency, but an increasing number must be placed outside the home, in settings such as foster care, private institutions, or the county detention center.
While overall trends in population and in incidents of youth violence is stable or declining, Family Court judges and other court officials report that the severity of reported offences or incidents is greatly increased, resulting in a significantly increased number of youth requiring placement outside the home. Increased state emphasis on the protection of children resulting from the 1998 Binsfield legislation has contributed to this increase while the resources to address difficult emotional and behavioral cases have declined as state support of local mental health programming has been reduced. Lacking access to such resources at early stages, the severity of the emotional and behavioral problems increase and the need for quality custodial care becomes more prevalent and costly.
Data supplied by the Family Court show that the number of delinquent court wards is projected to reach 1,700 in 2002, an increase of 37% from the 1,237 reported in 1998, and the number of neglect court wards is projected to reach 1,425, an increase of 60% from the 891 reported in 1998.
As a result, the county's 24 bed detention facility has been regularly overcrowded for the past several years, to the extent that the State of Michigan has withheld licensing renewal, pending development of a plan to reduce overcrowding. In addition, where there have traditionally been between 10 and 15 youth placed in private institutions outside the community, there have been as many as 25 youth placed during the last several months. Adequate facilities for females are especially lacking, according to court officials.Ingham County Commissioners, Judges and others have struggled for many years to develop intermediate programming for juveniles which is between traditional probation and secure detention. Marginal gains have been made through the establishment of short term residential programs such as the 5 bed Youth Attention Program and the 12 bed Project StART, operated by Camp Highfields, but significant gains have been hampered by the lack of funds.
In 1998, the county's expenditure for housing and treatment of delinquent and neglect youth was $2.8 million, matched with state funds for a total of $5.1 million. In 2002, the county's projected expenditures will be more than $5 million, matched with state funds for a total of $9 million. This is a 78% increase and is $1.5 million greater than the original 2002 budget.
If approved and levied in full, the 6/10 mill would generate $3.7 million annually. However, the resolution being considered by the Board anticipates partially offsetting the new 6/10 mill levy with a 1/10 mill reduction in the County's general operating levy. Thus, the owner of a house valued at $100,000, with a taxable value of $50,000, would pay $25 per year in additional property taxes as a result of this proposal.