Friday, Aug. 5, 2005 | 10:46 a.m.
Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy has been tapped to fill in temporarily as head of the county's Department of Juvenile Justice Services, whose director, Kirby Burgess, is scheduled to retire next month.
Murphy will serve in both positions without extra pay while the county searches for a full-time replacement for Burgess. The search, currently being conducted by a recruiting firm, should be done sometime in October "if things go as planned," County Manager Thom Reilly said.
Murphy is not a candidate for the permanent position, Murphy and Reilly said.
While a man who works with corpses might not appear to be an obvious choice to work with juvenile delinquents, Reilly noted that the 51-year-old Murphy's background is in law enforcement and detention.
Murphy was the first-ever juvenile officer in the Boulder City Police Department and went on to serve as chief of the Mesquite Police Department. Before becoming coroner, he ran the Las Vegas jail.
Reilly said it is not uncommon for one person to work two jobs when positions are empty. "When we have vacancies, people have to double up all over, whether we appoint an acting director or not," he said.
Murphy said he would work extra hours to cover both duties. A typical day might see him get to the coroner's office at 6 a.m., head over to juvenile justice at 9, put in a full day, then go back to the coroner's office in the early evening, he said.
"Is it a lot? Yeah," Murphy said. "Is it overwhelming? It's a challenge, but I love a challenge."
Murphy noted that he is already on call 24-7 at the coroner's office and is called to any case that involves two or more deaths or is otherwise unusual.
The juvenile justice department's 400 employees handle the detention and probation of juvenile delinquents. Burgess said it's definitely a full-time job, but as a temporary overseer, Murphy would probably delegate most day-to-day work to staffers while attending meetings and providing direction.
Burgess, who has known the man most call "Murph" for more than 25 years, noted that Murphy is a high-energy person. "It will be a daunting task to manage two high-profile departments, but I think he can do just that," Burgess said.
The juvenile justice department has been roiled in recent weeks by a report by two national nonprofit groups on an inspection of the juvenile detention center.
The report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Youth Law Center said detention staffers were too quick to use pepper spray on unruly youths and strap them to an immobilizing chair, practices the groups said were "deplorable" and must stop.
The report traced the facility's problems to a lack of mental health services and a culture that pitted police against social workers, with one side believing in punishment and the other advocating support and therapy.
While Murphy's background is on the police side, he said he understands the social-work perspective and doesn't think the two should be separate or opposed.
He noted that the coroner's office works with juvenile justice on initiatives such as the Coroner's Visitation Program, where youths charged with felonies or engaged in at-risk behavior are shown dead bodies to get them to think about the consequences of their actions.
Murphy said he is dedicated to "making sure juvenile justice moves forward" as recommended by the nonprofits' report.
"Juvenile justice is in a transition period," he said. "Is that a direction we're moving in? Absolutely. Will it be done overnight? No."
archive
