Iowa Juvenile Home's closure creates gender disparity

The closing of the Iowa Juvenile Home earlier this year has created a gender-biased system of justice that is unfair to girls who are now being placed in adult court or sent to out-of-state care facilities, state court officials charge.

Chief Juvenile Court Officer Ruth Frush of the First Judicial District told the state's Council on Human Services that the disparity in treatment options for girls and boys has created inequality within Iowa's juvenile justice system. The state-run Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, which primarily served girls, was closed in January following a Des Moines Register investigation that revealed youth there had been kept in long-term isolation cells for months at a time while being denied adequate education.

Without a facility to house girls who have committed crimes and are deemed "delinquent" by the court system, they're being shuffled into the corrections-focused adult court system or are being separated from family and friends by being sent to facilities out-of-state. Meanwhile, Iowa continues to operate a home for delinquent boys at the State Training School in Eldora.

Jimmy Centers, spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad, rejects the notion that the system is now unfair to girls, saying the youth "are being more effectively and accountably served" by privately run care facilities.

"Gov. Branstad is committed to ensuring Iowa responsibly meets the needs of delinquent youth in Iowa," Centers said.

The Iowa Department of Human Services also has taken the position that Iowa's private facilities are meeting the needs of girls since the juvenile home closed.

Frush disagrees. She said juvenile court officers aren't necessarily advocating for a new state-run home, but said the inequality in treatment has occurred "solely because of the lack of resources" available in Iowa for girls.

"We're basically not looking at a building, but at a level of care that's needed," she said. "And what we are saying is that this level of care needs to be in a secure environment and it needs to have mental-health components — including trauma-informed care and access to a psychiatrist. And it needs to be gender-specific, for girls, obviously."

By most estimates, Iowa has no more than roughly 20 delinquent girls who need housing, treatment and education at any given time, State Court Administrator David Boyd said. Given the relatively high level of staffing and security needed for those girls, the only cost-effective way of providing the service would likely be through one centralized facility, rather than a network of smaller facilities scattered throughout the state, he said.

"The governor and the Legislature can decide how best to provide that service," Boyd said. "That's not our call. But because we're not talking about a large number of girls at any one point in time, I am skeptical of the economics of having 20 beds in 20 different facilities around the state."

Call for examination of girls' placements

Since the Iowa Juvenile Home closed, 33 girls accused of criminal activity would have been good candidates for placement there, according to state juvenile court officers. Three have been sent to out-of-state facilities, and three have had their cases moved to adult court.

Several others are either in the youth shelters or detention centers, awaiting longer-term placements elsewhere. The rest are in residential-treatment or mental-health facilities, with the exception of one girl who has returned home. That youth could be waived to adult court — where she would be prosecuted and sentenced as an adult — if she has any additional problems with the law, simply because she has exhausted the available services in the juvenile system.

Nathan Kirstein of Disability Rights Iowa noted the Iowa Juvenile Home, unlike the Eldora facility for boys, was not a locked or secure facility. Instead, it was constructed like a comprehensive residential treatment facility — similar to those run by Four Oaks, Lutheran Services of Iowa, Quakerdale and other agencies.

"There has not been a 'secure environment' for girls who are adjudicated delinquent for around 30 years now," he said.

Before any decisions are made, Kirstein advocates for a state examination of the number of delinquent girls sent out-of-state to secure facilities both before and after the closing of the Toledo home, as well as a look at similar statistics on delinquent girls whose criminal cases were moved to adult court. The juvenile court deals with any offenders under the age of 18.

"Once the state has a deeper understanding of these issues, then a research-based, data-driven decision can be made about what the continuum of care will look like for girls in the juvenile justice system in Iowa," he said.

Missouri doesn't have a secure facility for delinquent girls because officials there decided there was no need for one, Kirstein said. "All of the girls in the (Missouri) state juvenile system are provided services in more community-based-treatment settings — including some of the girls with more violent offenses," he said.

Repeated violations of state law at home

Juvenile court officers play a critical role in deciding where juvenile offenders are sent for housing and treatment.

Last year, Emilea F. Lundberg, president of the Iowa Juvenile Court Services Association, expressed concern that "an entire level of care" had been eliminated for delinquent girls in Iowa with the closing of the Iowa Juvenile Home.

"We do have private facilities, but the girls who were being sent to the Iowa Juvenile Home were those who had already failed in those types of settings," she said. "And so the next level of care for them was this quasi-secure, state-run facility. We don't have that now."

For more than 50 years, the Iowa Juvenile Home had provided housing, education and treatment to troubled youths with behavioral problems. In 2013, Disability Rights Iowa found that the home repeatedly violated state law by placing young girls in long-term isolation inside small, unfurnished, concrete-block cells — in one case for almost a year.

A half-dozen investigations by state agencies and organizations led to the governor's decision last December to relocate the home's 21 remaining residents and lay off its 93 workers.

Historically, the home served a mix of female delinquents, as well as male and female foster children who were officially designated Children in Need of Assistance.

In May, the Register also revealed that investigators had determined the State Training School for Boys in Eldora wasn't providing proper educational services, a situation that state officials said was being rectified. Advocates for the disabled have asked state officials to begin examining that facility's use of isolation.

State needs setting for high-risk girls

Unless lawmakers act, Iowa will likely see an increase in the number of girls sent to out-of-state treatment facilities or waived to adult court to stand trial, according to the Juvenile Court Services Association.

In addition to funneling girls to adult court or out-of-state facilities, delinquent girls are now being sent to residential treatment centers and shelters — where 60 girls committed 101 criminal acts in the first six months of this year, according to Frush.

"Mixing these few dangerous girls in with other troubled girls results in assaults on other girls and on residential treatment staff," Frush said.

Frush said she will continue pushing for equal treatment of boys and girls in Iowa's juvenile system.

"The state does have facilities that house girls, but what it does not have is a secure setting for our most high-risk delinquent girls who pose a community-safety concern," she said.

"The boys have the State Training School at Eldora, and right now the girls do not have that. Now, whether (there should be) a stand-alone building, or a privately run facility, that's not really for us to say. But we do want to advocate for that same level of care."

Three girls sent out of state

Since the Iowa Juvenile Home was closed in January, three delinquent girls who might have otherwise been sent there went to out-of-state institutions:

• One girl had three prior placements in less restrictive facilities. After she ran away from a court-ordered treatment facility, she committed multiple thefts and burglaries. Aside from the threat she poses to others, court officials say the girl is at serious risk of substance abuse and homelessness.

• Another girl has faced multiple charges related to theft, operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, underage possession of alcohol and disorderly conduct. She had received community-based services, detention placements and one in-state residential-treatment placement before she was moved to an out-of-state facility.

• The third girl has been the focus of several assault allegations and also has significant mental health issues that have hindered her treatment during three previous out-of-home placements. In each instance, the facilities eventually asked that the girl be removed.

Source: Office of the Iowa State Court Administrator

Three cases moved to adult court

Since the Iowa Juvenile Home closed, three delinquent girls have had their criminal cases moved to adult court.

In part, that's because Iowa has no secure facility for delinquent girls. If the offenders had been boys, their cases might have remained in juvenile court, and they might have been sent to a secure, state-run facility in Eldora that provides treatment, housing and education.

The three girls have each faced allegations of violent, criminal behavior:

• A girl accused of committing first-degree murder at the age of 15 would have been eligible for treatment as a youthful offender had there been a facility in Iowa that could provide a secure, locked environment. The girl's attorney argued that same-age boys who faced the same charge were at least eligible for treatment as youthful offenders, while girls were not.

• A 17-year-old girl who faced four charges of second-degree theft and three charges of third-degree theft had faced 24 previous allegations of criminal activity, including several charges of assault on a peace officer. Before being waived to adult court, she had received community-based and residential-facility treatment.

• A 17-year-old girl was charged with second-degree theft. She had previously faced charges of assault, rioting, criminal mischief, theft and criminal trespassing.

Source: Office of the Iowa State Court Administrator

After the closing

• 3 girls sent to out-of-state institutions

• 3 girls sent to adult court system

• Other girls in youth shelters, detention facilities or mental-health facilities