Audit reveals big shortage of staff at juvenile center

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 10:02 a.m.

Staffing at the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, which will more than double in size by early next year, has been woefully short of the nation's standard staff-to-youth ratio, an internal audit says.

The training of personnel at the 112-bed facility is also insufficient, according to the report released Thursday.

While Nevada has no law dictating a staff-to-inmate ratio, other states use a 1-6 standard. The ratio in the county's detention center, which will expand to 232 beds by the end of January, is sometimes as high as 1-10 or 1-12.

"The ratios of staff to youth at the detention center during our audit period were not adequate to meet national standards or to maximize safety," according to the report written by internal auditor Jeremiah Carroll.

Auditors, which looked at a four-year period ending March 5, suggested a reassignment of duties, transfers or hiring of additional staff to compensate for the shortage.

But how many staff members will solve the problem is unknown.

Family and Youth Services, which oversees the detention center, was given permission during the last budget session to hire 49 probation officers in preparation for the expansion.

Sixty-six new employees in all have been hired since the audit was completed.

The center currently has three 24-bed cottages and one 40-bed hall. The county spent $26.5 million adding five more cottages.

Auditors said it is difficult to predict whether the additional probation officers will be enough to staff the detention center and bring the staff-youth ratio down to an acceptable level.

"Given the historical upward trend in juvenile population, uncertainty regarding positioning and utilization of new staff ... it is not possible to determine what overall impact the addition of the new probation officers will have," the report says.

The report shows that while the number of youths staying at the detention center each day had increased from 99 to 191 in the last decade, staffing had increased by three -- from 53 employees to 56.