ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
After assembling a quorum via a long-distance conference call, the Board of Juvenile Justice voted Wednesday to keep Roanoke's juvenile jail in operation.
The decision to take the Coyner Springs Juvenile Detention Home off probation and certify it for one year was made after Roanoke officials showed they have taken steps to correct 33 violations of state standards discovered at the home last summer.
After only two of the board's seven members made it to a meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Roanoke, the board had planned to take no action until it could meet next month in Richmond.
But with a staff recommendation that the home be taken off probation - and Roanoke officials eager for that to happen sooner rather than later - the two board members at Wednesday's meeting arranged a conference call with two others who could not attend.
Late Wednesday afternoon, after Board Chairman John Harding and member Connie Seagle hooked up with two board members in Northern Virginia, the four voted unanimously to certify the home for one year, according to Cari Brunelle, a spokeswoman for the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Had the home lost its certification, it would have been forced to shut down.
During a tour of the home Tuesday and a meeting Wednesday, it was clear that state officials were pleased with the progress the home has made.
Last November, the home was placed on probation after a team of inspectors found 33 violations of state standards. The violations included deficiencies in record keeping, "substandard" housekeeping, problems with fire safety and other infractions that stemmed from a serious overcrowding problem.
Since then, various city departments have been involved in bringing the home back into compliance.
The city has cleaned up cells that were cited by the team for having peeling paint, graffiti, dust-clogged ventilation ducts and bathroom areas covered with mildew. New lighting, plumbing, beds, doors and surveillance cameras also have been added to the 35-year-old building.
City Manager Bob Herbert praised the city's team effort in his remarks to the board. "You can do bricks and mortar, but it's the staff that really makes the difference," he said.
It cost about $150,000 to make the improvements and hire five additional employees for the home, Herbert estimated.
A few details still need to be finalized. In requesting a status report in May, the board asked that Roanoke update it on efforts to hire a full-time administrator for the home and fill a second position of administrator of juvenile services.
Some of the problems with the 21-bed facility stem from overcrowding that will not be resolved until an expansion to the home is completed more than a year from now.
When the home was placed on probation, it was holding as many as 55 juveniles - meaning that cells designed for one youth were holding as many as three. In recent weeks, the home has been averaging about 20 youths, most of them 15 or older.
In the past, the home frequently accepted juveniles from Botetourt County, Roanoke County, Salem and other localities, which pay the city $84 a day per juvenile. But the home has recently implemented a policy not to accept juveniles from other localities when its occupancy goes over 21.
That has put some other jurisdictions in a bind.
"It's been an incredible adjustment," said Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Philip Trompeter, who hears cases primarily in Roanoke County and Salem. "We basically are having to depend on the kindness of other juvenile detention homes."
With other homes also experiencing overcrowding, court officials have sometimes had to go as far away as Loudoun County to find an empty cell.
Trompeter said the shortage of cell space has not forced him to change his philosophy about which juveniles before him need to be detained. But he wonders when the day will come when there is nowhere to put a juvenile he orders locked up
"We have just been lucky up to this point," he said. "But I'm not sure when our luck is going to run out."
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