Why is it difficult for Hennepin County managers to engage community resources and leadership in the solution side of juvenile detention, prevention and justice?Judge Tanya Bransford said the county had been moving in that direction. “I was co-chair as the presiding juvenile court judge, along with Fred LeFleur, who was the director of community corrections of collaboration between the Bench and the Community Corrections. The Bench does not control the purse strings, but we have been trying to push to institutional change.
“Part of it is saying how we are going to work with communities. We had a part steering team that included Mad Dads and other community organizations,” Bransford said. “But we were making the mistake of having meetings that were convenient for the system. So the meetings would be in the Government Center. Finally we said that doesn’t make sense because everyone else has to pay to park and go through security. So now we started having our steering committee meetings in the community, so they’re in the parks. We’re meeting more now in the community, and hopefully at times where we can engage –we’ve asked other people, such as people from the Indian Health Board, and – the Division of Indian Works, and African-American Family Services.
“We’ve asked other community people to help us engage in this effort, but what we’re trying to do is institutionalize the changes so that it’s not just something that is a change or an initiative of Judge Bransford that, when she’s gone, we’ll just go back to the old way,” she said. “We’re trying to say this is going to be institutionalized and built-in.
The Rev. Greg Foster’s program, Citadel of Hope, is a coaching resource that recruits, organizes and mobilizes community coaches to work with children that are not a danger to the public. “Let them go to someone like Citadel of Hope, particularly in zip codes 55411, 55412, because that was the area that so many of our youth were coming from, and connect them with volunteers or people in the community who will get them to come to court, and make sure they’re going to school. The coaches make sure they’re doing their sentence to serve, whatever their court orders are. And they make sure that they just come to court. That’s a lot cheaper,” Bransford said.
She said there is a need for evening reporting centers. “The mayor has said that we could possibly use some of the foreclosed homes, places where young people, rather than being locked up for violating probation, could go to in the community every day after school from three to nine o’clock at night. Managed by community people such neighborhood centers could make sure that they’re in the right groups and that they’re doing their homework, that they’re being positive, and that they’re not just being locked up,” she said.
Winfred Payne is the director of Alternatives, a program for youth. He said, “We who work in the community in smaller organizations know that nobody at the County works for free. But when we ask about where the money is, or when it’ll come, we’re branded as always begging for the money or always worrying about the money.”
“I have followed the money,” said the Rev. Greg Foster, explaining he has proposed an $8,000 pilot program. He concurred with Bransford, that Hennepin Corrections lack of responsiveness may be due to staff and leadership turnover. “I’ve seen several people come and go – Michael Belton, Brian Smith, Chris Owens. The reality is that it cost $324 and some change a day to incarcerate a youth. To not engage an $8000 pilot program that can reduce incarceration, and the high cost of incarceration, is just absurd.”
Jerry Moore said, executive director of the Jordan Area Community Council said there are many collaborations that are ready but have been stuck at this place of bureaucracy. “Give us some real timelines as to when this is going to happen. Let’s put some dates to this. Let’s not continue to push this back. Ramsey County committed $1.1 million to their community initiatives. Hennepin County needs to get off that pot,” Moore said.
Jim Payne, joining the program from New York, said what the community is seeking from Hennepin County should have occurred a long time ago. “But the problem is the communities don’t necessarily trust the government, and the government doesn’t necessarily trust the community. So when you put them all in the same room, they bring in years of mistrust with themselves. I understand the community’s frustration. It shouldn’t exist, but it does. And until they all come to the table, you’re not going to get this rectified,” he said.
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