May 25, 2012

Dear DJJ team members:

Welcome to my weekly letter. Please allow me to share some recent news and announcements.

PERSONNEL MOVES: I am pleased to announce the following appointments to ensure that our agency and the reforms we are making continue to move forward.

• Denny Clark is appointed director of Staff Development and Training effective today. Denny brings a wealth of private-sector experience to this vital role, having previously served in management and senior management positions at First Union and Wachovia financial institutions in Florida and North Carolina. In these roles he was responsible for human resources, corporate recruiting, employee training and customer service. He also was the president and CEO of his own consulting business, Denny Clark Enterprises. He graduated with honors from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and attended the Executive Leadership Program at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. Denny’s experience and expertise will be put to good use as we train and prepare our workforce for the future.

• Brenda Posthumus, director of Staff Development and Training, is appointed director of Special Projects effective June 1. In this role, Brenda will manage critical projects for the Executive Leadership Team and will also be directly engaged in promoting the cause of juvenile justice reform with key stakeholders. I am grateful to Brenda’s professionalism as director of Staff Development and Training and look forward to her enthusiasm in advancing reform statewide.

• Theda Roberts, Special Projects coordinator, will assume the role of Civil Citation coordinator effective June 1. In this position, Theda will be responsible for the implementation of the civil citation process in communities and counties throughout Florida. Civil citation is the cornerstone of our reform efforts and its effective deployment statewide is vital to making sure at-risk youth get the services and sanctions they need, when they need them. I appreciate Theda’s skillful management of special projects for the agency and am confident her skills and knowledge will serve DJJ well in her new role.

• In addition, Ken Houk has been appointed director of the Administrative Review Unit. He replaced Fred Rhoden, who retired last year. Ken has been acting director since Fred’s retirement and his first day in the permanent position is today. Ken is a veteran state employee, having begun his public service career as a Juvenile Probation Officer after graduating from Florida Southern College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. He has served in various management positions, including assistant superintendent (and trainer) at the Polk Juvenile Detention Center and superintendent of the Polk Halfway House. As director of the Administrative Review Unit, Ken oversees the independent review of incidents reported to the Central Communications Center and subsequently assigned for administrative review by each branch (Detention, Prevention, Probation, or Residential). While incidents referred for administrative review are not strictly programmatic issues, they do not meet the criteria for investigation by the Inspector General’s Office.

These appointments will help build and sustain our momentum toward juvenile justice reform in Florida. I thank Denny, Brenda, Theda and Ken for assuming these leadership roles and for their dedication to our agency and the public whom we serve. Please welcome them to their new responsibilities.

CONGRATULATIONS: The following individuals graduated today from basic officer training at the Florida Public Safety Institute in Tallahassee. To become certified juvenile justice officers, they successfully completed 196 hours of juvenile justice probation training or 240 hours of juvenile justice detention training.

Ada Acevedo, Circuit 9 Probation
Debbie Blas, Circuit 9 Probation
Bridget Bussjaeger,Alachua Regional Juvenile Detention Center (RJDC)
David Drew, Volusia RJDC
James Footman, Volusia RJDC
Stacy Ledbetter, Okaloosa RJDC
Shannon Makowski, Circuit 15 Probation
Lataya Mathis, Circuit 10 Probation
Aimee Melvin, Circuit 2 Probation
Terrance Morring, Volusia RJDC
Quatelious Mosley, Southwest RJDC
Ray Murray, Southwest RJDC
Timothy Musselman, Collier RJDC
Monique Nichols, Leon RJDC
Michael Perez, Collier RJDC
Frances Porrata, Circuit 15 Probation
Patrice Richardson, Circuit 2 Probation
Christine Rouse, Circuit 15 Probation
Shawntae Tumblin, Circuit 7 Probation

SPOTLIGHT ON YOUTH TRANSITION SERVICES: Megan Smith joined DJJ in January as Statewide Transition coordinator, a new position in the Office of Probation and Community Intervention. Megan develops partnerships with local and state agencies, community providers and probation staff to implement and support a seamless transition process for residential youth into the community. Successful youth reentry is a top priority for DJJ and a key goal for juvenile justice reform. Previously, Megan was a youth and family advocate with Capital City Youth Services in Tallahassee (a CINS/FINS provider). She received a master’s degree in social work from Barry University and an undergraduate degree in social work from Florida State University. She recently discussed youth transition services.

Q: Briefly describe youth transition services. What are they?

A: Transition services are community resources that support the success of youths’ rehabilitation and ease the return to their home communities after completion of a residential program. Youth have a wide range of needs that are not juvenile justice issues, but that negatively impact their ability to avoid recidivating. One of the most obvious ways to begin to reduce these problems is to plan better for the child’s eventual release. We now recognize that planning for release should begin when the child participates in the commitment staff meeting, not when a residential release date has been approved.

Q. What is a need within transitional services that you often see?

A. There are many needs; however, the two that I have heard most consistently are transportation and housing. Right now, assistance to help youth meet these needs doesn’t exist. Many kids have no way to get around to the services that are ordered for them. Others leave programs with nowhere to go; their families are unable or unwilling to have them back in the house. Sometimes the parent just doesn’t show up to get them.

Q. Give me an example of a youth scenario with transitional services and without them.

A. Imagine a 17-year old youth – we’ll call him Johnny – is in a moderate risk residential program. Johnny works hard to change his behavior throughout his residential stay and does well, although his father is incarcerated and his mother has sporadic contact with him and a problem with substance abuse. He talks on the phone regularly with his aunt. Johnny makes the best of his time in the program and takes the GED exam. The JPO is concerned about Johnny’s return home because there are problems contacting his mother and the environment that motivated his misbehavior hasn’t changed. His aunt agrees to let him stay with her and he is released. Johnny’s aunt encourages him to get a job, but he can’t get a job or start vocational-technical school until he has identification. He needs a copy of his birth certificate to get an ID card, and he doesn’t have that, either. Johnny is idle and frustrated. He stays out late with friends from his old neighborhood and gets drunk, although he’s still underage and he knows it is a violation of his probation. When he returns home, he gets into an argument with his aunt and strikes her. She calls the police and Johnny is arrested. Unfortunately, this type of scenario happens fairly often.

Now, imagine Johnny’s JPO and aunt start working on his transition plan to live with her during his commitment staff meeting. His aunt and JPO start working to get the necessary documents for his ID before he even enters the residential program. A Faith Partner Johnny meets during his Residential stay links Johnny with a Faith Partner in his aunt’s neighborhood. Now he has a volunteer chaplain he can talk to if he gets discouraged. Johnny, his JPO and his aunt regularly discuss his transition plan. They talk about his treatment status and develop goals for him to focus on when he leaves the program. He thinks about working and going to school. During a community re-entry team meeting in his home county, Johnny’s JPO discusses the situation with community partners. They schedule counseling, get him involved with support groups for children of convicts and addicts and find him a mentor. Soon after returning home, Johnny is able to get a job and enter school. He is so busy that it is not as difficult to resist peer pressure. When he does have a disagreement with his aunt, they have resources to help them communicate and work through their issues. As you can see from this scenario, transition services can greatly enhance a youth’s likelihood of success.

Q: What are your goals?

A: Every circuit needs at least one re-entry team to facilitate the transition of youth back into the community. The teams meet regularly to discuss needs of each returning youth and collaborate to connect each child to appropriate local services. We want to develop a model to give circuits a blueprint for creating a re-entry team. We are still in the early stages of developing the model and since resources vary within communities, there is not a standard or comprehensive list. However, we think that the teams should include representatives from juvenile probation, schools, Workforce, SEDNET (the Multiagency Network for Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities), mental health and faith partners.

Q: How are you accomplishing this?

A: I am visiting circuits to learn about the local contacts and resources. We want to collaborate with community partners to better understand and connect youth and their families to available resources. The Office of Research and Planning is helping to develop an evidence-based model for a successful transition process.

Q: What would you like to say to all DJJ programs statewide?

A: One of the most important components to creating re-entry teams and their success helping youth is changing the context of how we perceive the youth we serve. They are children and they need help to change their behavior. It is much like the paradigm shift to addressing youth problems from a trauma-informed perspective. Determining a child’s needs requires us to frame our approach to them differently. Before we criticize them for non-compliance, it would be helpful to understand the obstacles that make compliance difficult or impossible and address those needs. For example, one boy was getting in trouble for sleeping in class. We later found the reason he was sleeping wasn’t because he was out all night breaking curfew, but because his mother was a prostitute and was bringing strangers home. He stayed awake to guard his younger sister and brother. Castigating him for sleeping in class would not have resolved the problems that drove his behavior. By finding the cause, we were able to connect the family with supportive resources to achieve better outcomes.

GENERAL COUNSEL KUDOS: DJJ Attorney Natalia Kirchner stepped out of the courtroom and behind the microphone at WOTS-1220 AM, a Spanish-language radio station in Kissimmee, on May 17. She was asked by Leidys Moreno, the host of the radio show “Justicia para Todos” (“Justice for All”), to share information about DJJ’s Children in Need of Services (CINS) programs in the greater Orlando area. CINS programs throughout Florida provide temporary shelter care for runaways and counseling to families in crisis due to ungovernable or truant youth, to help resolve issues and reunite families. Thanks to Natalia for donating her expertise, time and bilingual skills to make this valuable information available to the radio station’s audience.

PROBATION KUDOS: Circuit 7 senior JPO Stephanie McKinzie was honored for her volunteer service on May 14 by the staff of the Daytona Beach Juvenile Justice Satellite Office. Over the years she has volunteered often. At DJJ, she led JPOs in a Circuit 7 back-to-school book bag drive and maintains a collection of donated books specially reserved for youth. This year, the Internal Revenue Service honored Stephanie with a 2012 Award for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly, and most notably, she received the national President’s Call To Service Award. Her co-worker, senior JPO Milton James says, “She is always willing to participate in and organize anything that benefits the youth, her co-workers and the community. She does this while actively being involved in the Girl Scouts with her children. It is not just what she does, this is who she is.” Thank you, Stephanie for your service to DJJ and your community!

JPO Stephanie McKinzie

DETENTION KUDOS: Superintendent Eddie Roberts and the staff of the Pasco RJDC congratulate the Pasco RJDC Education Department on the twelfth anniversary of its general equivalency diploma (GED) testing program. Since being designated as an official GED test administration site on May 23, 2000, the center’s teachers and educational staff have helped more than 100 DJJ students pass the GED exam.

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: My weekly messages are now linked on Twitter to make it easier to share news about DJJ. To get DJJ’s tweets, enter "fladjj" in the search bar at the top of your Twitter homepage and click the magnifying glass. When you see “FL Juvenile Justice” with the DJJ star logo, click the "Follow" tab. PLEASE NOTE: It is against employee policy regarding internet use to access social networking sites; therefore, Twitter is blocked on DJJ computers. Please “follow” us on your home computer or personal smartphone.

Thank you for all you do to keep our young people and communities safe. Please have a peaceful and restful Memorial Day weekend, and remember those who have served our country in uniform so that we may live in liberty.

Sincerely,

Wansley Walters

Secretary

PS: Please send any noteworthy or newsworthy items for consideration in my weekly letter to Communications Director C. J. Drake at cj.drake@djj.state.fl.us or call 850.921.5905. Submissions are considered on a space-available basis and may be edited for clarity and length. Thank you for your cooperation.