Tarrant County leaders call new juvenile detention report 'disturbing'
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - Overcrowding at a juvenile detention center prompted Tarrant County leaders on Tuesday to suggest defunding two judicial positions, unless children are moved through the justice system faster.
County Judge Glen Whitley said he was disturbed reading the report, which found children are now in detention an average of 25 days, up from 13 in 2015. The daily population has more than doubled in that time, including a record high of 138 in April.
County commissioner Roy Charles Brooks said he found it hard to understand how some of the extended detentions were not racist, with the report noting 92% of the youth being held on one day in June, were of color.
The report was prepared by a former director of juvenile services for the county, Carey Cockerell. A juvenile services board is expected to meet Wednesday, and Whitley said he would like to see members consider giving authority to another judge to help work through the backlog of cases.
County leaders commissioned the report in May after the population at the center exceeded capacity by 18 children. The county hired Carey Cockerell, former director of juvenile services for the county, to audit the system.
Cockerell found the population has gone up, even as law enforcement has referred fewer children to the department. He also determined the processing for those who are there is inefficient. Of 116 juveniles in detention on a day in June this year, 25 were waiting a review by the District Attorney's office. Another 25 had been in detention more than 100 days with no disposition of their case.
In his conclusions and recommendations, Cockerell focused on the time the DA's office was taking to review cases. However, District Attorney Sharen Wilson strongly defended her department in front of commissioners, pointing out judges are able to release juveniles at any time.
In a letter to the Juvenile Board released by Wilson's office, she wrote that a judge "can release a child from detention at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all."
The Judge referenced by Wilson, and mentioned often by commissioners Tuesday without using his name, is Alex Kim, who presides over the 323rd District Court, and two associate judges.
One of those associate courts, the report says, staff sometimes refers to as a "ghost" court because it's so rarely in session. A review of a sampling of days over the last year, Cockerell found more than 60% of cases in the court were passed, cancelled or reset.
During a period between mid-February and mid-March, the report says all three courts conducted no hearings outside of detention hearings. Whitley noted this happened during early voting for the March primary.
"We've all run for office, but that's never, I don't think, interfered with us doing our job," he said.
Kim had the endorsement of Tim O'Hare in that election. O'Hare beat out Betsy Price to win the Republican nomination for the county judge seat. Whitley had backed Price, the former Fort Worth mayor, to take over at the county when he finishes his current term.
That period of time was also adjacent to a short term shuttering of proceedings in the juvenile system, when a spike of COVID cases impacted staff at the detention center and courthouse.
The report notes the first six months of 2022 have seen an increase in violent referrals to the system. While Cockerell wrote that it was not significant enough to account for the increase in length of stay, judges can use more caution in releasing a child associated with a violent crime.
In listing some of the juveniles with the longest stays, the report also notes one was awaiting trial as an adult. Another eight were waiting for transfer to the state system, which has stopped accepting new children this summer due to extreme staffing shortages.
It wasn't clear what action the juvenile board might take regarding the report when it meets Wednesday.
Whitley acknowledged that he hoped the threat of removing funding for the associate courts, might spur judges to start moving cases more quickly, and getting children into community-based justice programs rather than in detention.