Q+A: Cheryln Townsend

Molly Ball

Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 | 8:02 a.m.

Clark County got a new director of the Juvenile Justice Services Department last week as Cheryln Townsend took the reins. Townsend, 54, previously headed the equivalent department in Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix.

Juvenile justice -- a $40-million, 400-employee department that handles the detention and probation of juvenile delinquents -- has been controversial in the last year. A 16-year-old killed herself in the youth detention center, the first death at that facility in nearly 30 years, and a damning report by two national nonprofit groups blasted the detention center's use of pepper spray and a restraint chair to keep youths under control.

The department also has been praised, however, for officials' attempts to jail fewer children by increasing the use of community-based alternatives for nonviolent offenders. That effort, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, is supported by a three-year grant from the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Townsend, a native of Omaha, Neb., holds a master's degree in public administration and another in business administration. She spent 20 years in various justice positions in Texas before spending a decade at the helm of Maricopa County Juvenile Court Services.

Townsend sat down with the Sun on Monday for her first interview since starting work.

Question: What are your priorities as a juvenile justice director?

Answer: I believe in "balanced and restorative justice" -- reduce the risk kids pose to the community, repair the harm that is caused, teach them skills so they don't continue to commit crimes, build resources in the community and put in place services for kids and families.

There have to be mental health services for kids and families. Often, when they're not available, that's what leads kids to get involved with the juvenile justice system.

Clearly, (the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative) will be a focus. It's based on several principles, including making sure the conditions of confinement are constitutional and safe. We want to make sure the services and supervision are in place to release certain kids to the community when they don't need to be in detention.

It's important for us to detain the right kids, and for the kids who don't need to be detained, we need to develop the capacity in the community.

Q: One of the problems officials are running into is a lack of resources outside juvenile justice -- a youth in detention ought to be in the abused children's shelter, but it's full, or she ought to be in a mental health facility, but it's full. Are you confident the state and county will provide you with what you need to accomplish your goals?

A: Certainly one of my jobs is to try and find services where they don't currently exist, but I would not have taken this job if I didn't feel confident that I could do that.

There are a lot of competing priorities, but that's why collaboration is so important -- with Mental Health, with Family Services. Some funding might come from the reallocation of existing resources, some might come from other resources that don't exist yet.

My interest in coming here has a lot to do with the challenge. There are a lot of positive things about the Clark County leadership and the judicial leadership, but there are challenges as well.

Q: One of those challenges was illustrated by the report that strongly condemned the detention center's use of punitive methods and called for them to be completely abolished. Are you prepared to take that step and get rid of pepper spray and the restraint chair?

A: I haven't investigated completely how we're using those methods of constraint. But I will say that I have never had to use either one in detention. But staff have to have the right training and tools to make sure kids are safe and they're safe. It may be that once those additional tools are added, we can remove some of the tools that were used in the past.

Q: What about that same report's larger conclusion that there was a problem with the overall culture in the detention center, that it was too punitive overall?

A: That kind of change has already been initiated -- there's a new behavior management system in detention, with more positive behavior being rewarded as well as having consequences for negative behavior. There were some changes made in policies and all staff were required to be trained in the new policies. Supervisors were part of the development of the policies, so they feel ownership.

The times I've been in the detention center here, I have not observed a punitive environment. But cultural change takes a long time. And I plan to be here for many years.

Q: Experts say Las Vegas has the biggest underage prostitution problem in the nation. Have you given this issue any thought?

A: I have heard that teen prostitution is a high number here, and that is an area of concern. There is already a group working to see if we might better respond to those girls. I expect that will be an area that we will develop a specialized program for, but I want to make sure we really have good support -- a system and a program that gives them other options to move them away from prostitution and keep them safe.

Q: What's your impression of the scope of the youth gang problem in Clark County?

A: I think gangs have been more of a problem here than they had been in Maricopa County. But I know this office has been working with Metro and the attorney general's office. We also have an opportunity to respond to graffiti at the same time.

Q: Graffiti has been a hot topic here, with the mayor of Las Vegas saying vandals should have their thumbs cut off. Do you think there should be special programs to address the graffiti problem?

A: We did have a different set of consequences for (graffitists) in Maricopa County, called "Project Scrub," to remove graffiti, teach them positive skills and get them to work with the community in a positive way. I could see developing something like that here.

Q: Your predecessor in this position, Kirby Burgess, was credited with raising the issue of disproportionate minority contact with the system, meaning members of minority groups formed a higher percentage of the juvenile justice population than of the community in general. How will you address this issue, which continues to be a concern?

A: I sat on the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Minorities, and we produced a report card for each community so they could find ways to address this issue. The model community for this is really Portland, Ore. They have been able to demonstrate in some areas that there is no disproportionality whatsoever. That should be our goal. It should be something that has nothing to do with our decisions, nothing to do with our involvement. The problem comes when you consider that poverty is often a factor. But we've got to make sure that there's a level playing field for kids and families.

Q: What other experience do you bring to the table that will affect how you run this department?

A: In one sort of sabbatical from juvenile justice, I spent a couple of years working with the Texas state juvenile district attorney's office, working with the victims of violent crime. That helped me understand just what kind of pain and harm is caused by crime, and how important it is to repair that. We had programs to inform young people about how crime affects people, trying to get them to see it from the victim's perspective -- to understand what the cost is and what it would feel like if the victim was someone you know. It's not just about offender rehabilitation. It's about repairing the harm that's caused.

Molly Ball can be reached at 259-8814 or at molly@lasvegassun.com.

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