Kids criminalized over lack of mental health care: Inside the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility
(CBS DETROIT) - County officials say overcrowding and understaffing are major concerns at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility.
Executive Producer Impacting Communities Amyre Makupson sits down with Abdul El-Sayed, director of the Wayne County Health, Human and Veteran Services.
You can watch the full one-on-one interview in the video above.
Amyre Makupson: Do you think that the overcrowding could have played a part in the sexual assault that happened to a young man?
Abdul El-Sayed: I'll tell you that that is still under investigation. And I can't speak about it, given the pending police investigation. But you know, there's no doubt that whenever you have overcrowded, understaffed situations, it is less safe. And we recognize that the overcrowding and the understaffing were creating a circumstance where our kids could get hurt. And we had a responsibility to act. The CEO (Evans) realized there was just a responsibility for us to step up, called for a public health state of emergency [in the Wayne County Juvenile Justice Facility]. And we've been operating in that state of emergency now for several weeks.
Our average length of stay went from 21 days to 127 days. The number of kids in our facility went from an average of about 65 to upwards of 160 at one point ... That created and exacerbated a staffing challenge because the work got so much harder, people got overwhelmed, and they left their job. This was all by the way, in the midst of a great recession that had happened across the economy. You're talking about people who are doing some of the hardest work in the economy, they're going to be the first to just say, 'You know what I'm done.' And in COVID, we know that interrupted a lot of workplaces. And that was the same for ours.
That was really driven by the fact that we just didn't have long-term residential stay. That created overcrowding understaffing and led to a situation where the CEO realized that there was just a responsibility for us to step up, called for a public health state of emergency. We've been operating in that state of emergency now for several weeks, I'm glad to say that we've been working with our partners at the state working with the courts to reduce the number of juveniles in our facility. We went from 144 to 108 yesterday. So that's really good news.
Amyre Makupson: What did the state do to help with that?
Abdul El-Sayed: They've been working with us just to really focus on case-by-case who can move out of our facility, but also can we open up some more long-term residential state beds. They've been really focused on trying to work with providers that still operate here in the state to open up more beds. There is, for example, 40 beds that are supposed to come online in the next month.
When you talk about low-income, Black or Brown kids, the thing that you usually do get is sympathy. And I've never worked with a population of kids who didn't have some, at least that sympathy. And this is the first time I've had that experience. And it's a really sad thing. Because when you talk to these kids, most of them will acknowledge that they've done something that is horrible. They're still kids, and they still deserve our belief in the future that they can have. And the hard part is that when we don't see that future, we're foreclosing on him. And that's a choice we make, about the lives that these kids can have in front of them.
And so, you know, this is a, frankly, I hope, a four-alarm moment, for this whole state, here in Wayne County, at the state, but all of us in our communities, to ask, what does it take for us to find the empathy to see the children, for children, because that's, that's who they are kids. You know, you'll go and you'll talk to them and it's striking that, you know, this is just a kid, and they deserve us to be invested in their future, not just to hold them accountable for their past.
Amyre Makupson: If things don't change, they don't change fast, what do you see happening with our kids in juvie?
Abdul El-Sayed: I'll tell you this, they are going to change fast and they're changing fast and we are going to fix this challenge. What I will say is that moving forward, we've got to ask big-picture questions about the system. Are we invested in it in the way that it deserves? Because I do think it's an important thing that when we talk about kids, we don't talk about sentencing to time, we're not punishing them for what they've done. We're rehabilitating them for what we failed to do. Right? And that takes investment. And if we don't make that investment, I worry that we're going to continue to have kids who fall victim to a system that punishes rather than invests uplifts and rehabilitates.
So I do hope that, you know, folks out there who are concerned about the situation, are asking big picture questions of what are, what are we going to do about it? What are we together going to do, to lift these kids up, get them the services that they deserve, and invest in the future that they can have?
I can tell you the CEO is committed to doing that here in Wayne County, and we're executing that vision every single day. But it's a team effort. And we're really grateful for the partnership we've had with the state. We're grateful for the partnership we've had in the courts. But this is an issue that all of us really have to tuck into. And it's not one that most of us think about every day, right? And part of the challenge here is that sometimes what we do is we sort of hide these kids away. We say we don't have to think about that. But these are our kids. And you know, I'll tell you, when you look them in the eye, they're like this could very well be my kid. And I hope that everybody thinks of him that way.
One of the things that we've been working on with a partner, Team Wellness, is to bring forward an intensive day program that includes everything from therapy for youths to a robust education component, where they can be learning their basics, but also being trained for potential trades that they might be interested in pursuing, to offering recreation. I mean, these are still kids, and we have a responsibility to make sure that they're, they're engaged as kids, and they get that opportunity to engage with each other and have some fun.
This kind of program offers an opportunity for a kid to go home on a tether, but at the same time, get the kind of services they might get in a residential program.
Amyre Makupson: And when would that start?
Abdul El-Sayed: We're hoping to bring it operational as soon as possible.
I know the folks at Team Wellness are great people doing amazing work, and I hope folks will go out there and learn more about what they do. But they've been working, literally night and day to put this together. And to make it a welcoming environment for our young people. They think about every aspect of a child's life. It's their education, certainly, but most importantly, their mental health. They spend a lot of time in therapy, working through a lot of the experiences that led them to this point, and helping empower them with skills to manage things like anger, or anxiety or depression. And then there's recreation time, right, there's still there's still kids.
I'll tell you, Amyre, it is mind-blowing to both look at someone and say you're a kid, and like really a kid and they're children, but also you're kid who did something that unfortunately has really changed the course of your life. And so, you know, I think our job is to play for the life that that kid can have and to work to empower them to have that. And, you know, a lot of what we've tried to do in our facility has been focused specifically on safety and security.
But also recognizing that if juveniles are going to be spending months in our facility, we have a responsibility to jumpstart that kind of treatment and education. And so a lot of what we focused on is not just upgrading our facilities, hiring new staff, we raised the wages 35%, to be able to really make this the kind of enticing job that fits the challenge of the job. But also to bring online more space so that kids aren't concentrated, and then being forced to sort of stay in a room most of the day, but also to bring online in facility services.
Working with that same provider to scope out the opportunity to start providing therapy and at least an assessment so that kids can get jump-started on their path toward rehabilitation, over the long term, even as we work with the state to build out more long-term residential state facilities.
Then, the last piece is thinking a little bit about it, if you were a 16-year-old kid, and you're in a situation where every day you call your lawyer, and you say, 'Is there a place for me?' and they say no, you can imagine you'd go pretty stark crazy in that facility. Even things like giving folks a locked-down version of a tablet, like the kind of iPad that you might get for your teenage son, but one that is limited in terms of its capacities, but at least you know, you got educational programming, you got some music, you got some movies, but something that you could spend your time augmenting your educational experience with that will occupy your mind. And so I think for us, it's asking.
Amyre Makupson: How can the community support? We don't work in the system. How can the community support?
Abdul El-Sayed: I think we should be advocating for a much bolder, broader mental health infrastructure across our communities. But let's be clear, right? This is one continuum. Our failure to invest in mental health outside is what leads, I think, so many of these kids to find themselves on the inside. And also think it's just advocacy for investment in this problem. I think when you think about what, where government can put its dollars, there are a lot of different things that can be working for, but supporting the most vulnerable people, people who've lost everything, including sympathy from everyone else.
They have to be top of our list. And, you know, I think the way we treat our most vulnerable is a testament to who we are, as a society in this county. We've said that we are going to invest everything we can in our most vulnerable kids. But advocacy to make sure that across our society, we're doing the same thing. That's critical and everybody has a voice and the question is, where do we raise it and on what issues do we raise it and I hope that this is one of them.