Sheriff Joe Arpaio: I'll take all juvenile inmates

JJ Hensley and Yvonne Wingett -
Mar. 5, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic .

A proposal from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to take custody of all of Arizona's juvenile inmates offers a glimpse into the complexities of dismantling the state Department of Juvenile Corrections.

Gov. Jan Brewer's budget proposes eliminating the $63 million agency, an idea that raises significant concern among county officials around the state. They fear the costs of caring for juvenile inmates will be pushed back on to their taxpayers.


Arpaio this week proposed a potential solution: taking the state's 500 juvenile inmates into Maricopa County facilities.

Reaction to his proposal has been mixed. Officials from other counties are universally skeptical that Maricopa County has the infrastructure in place for the added inmates. However, some state lawmakers champion the idea as a way to ease the state's financial burden without increasing the cost to taxpayers.

Arpaio's chief deputy, David Hendershott, e-mailed other county sheriffs Wednesday with sketchy details of a plan to take custody of the state's juvenile inmates without requiring any extra money from their offices.

"We have the systems in place to handle them," Arpaio said in an interview. "I know we can do it cheaper than anyone else. We do have some vacancies now anyway."

But county administrators across the state were skeptical that Arpaio - or any county sheriff in Arizona - would be equipped to handle all the special services that the law requires for juveniles in custody.

The state juvenile facility on Black Canyon Highway has medical and dental clinics, treatment centers for substance abuse and other addictions, and a high school, noted David Tenney, a Navajo County supervisor and vice president of the County Supervisors Association of Arizona.

Maricopa County has an accredited high school in its jails, but the county-operated health-care provider for jails lost its accreditation last year.

Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon said he would be surprised if Maricopa County could provide all of the rehabilitative services juvenile offenders are afforded.

"If all Maricopa County is offering is to house them, then it's not meeting the philosophy behind the juvenile justice system," he said. "The philosophical issue that the Legislature is having to address is, what is the purpose of the juvenile justice system?"

Maricopa County officials have no idea what it would cost to take custody of the state's juvenile inmates, but Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson estimated it would cost taxpayers $40 million just to take on those inmates sentenced from Maricopa County.

A spokesman for Brewer said Arpaio's idea was one of many under consideration to ease the state's budget crisis.

Other questions remain with Arpaio's proposal: Who would pay for the psychologists and counselors required for juvenile inmates, and what structure would be in place to ensure the transfer of custody from other counties to Maricopa County's facility?

The idea also has skeptics outside county government.

"The whole premise of the Juvenile Department of Corrections and the treatment and incarceration of juveniles is supposed to be aimed at rehabilitation," said Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground, a prison-reform group.

"There isn't an iota of a chance that a juvenile could receive rehabilitation in one of Joe Arpaio's facilities."

A federal judge ruled in 2008 that conditions and food in Arpaio's jails fell below constitutional minimums.

But Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said he has toured Maricopa County jails and deemed them "an efficient, clean and secure operation - a bit spartan, but it is a jail."

Rep. Carl Seel, R-Phoenix, wants to ensure that the closure of the state agency doesn't simply shift the cost and burden to county taxpayers, and that juvenile offenders get the treatment they deserve.

"It's going to be a very big challenge to try to hold on to the good things that the Department of Juvenile Corrections is doing and reduce their overhead," he said.

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