Feb
7
$8.36 an hour; Guards’ low pay a burden on juvenile system, some say
Filed Under juvenile justice, privatization | Comments Off
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The private contractors that run Florida’s programs for juvenile offenders pay their workers some of the lowest wages in the nation, a problem child advocates say is causing crippling staff turnover and putting teens in danger.
The average Florida worker makes $17,398 a year to guard and mentor difficult juveniles offenders in residential programs, says the Florida Juvenile Justice Association. That is $8.36 an hour – about what they could make to supervise fast-food workers, stock shelves or collect tolls on the turnpike.
And it is less than a juvenile correctional officer makes to do the same job in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana, The Palm Beach Post found in a survey of 20 other states. Despite a lower cost of living and smaller tax base, the state of West Virginia pays its workers nearly $3,000 a year more than Florida’s private contractors.
Juvenile judges, attorneys and child advocates say it is foolish to invest so little in the programs designed to keep troubled teens out of adult prisons.
“That’s horrific,” said Pam Roebuck, a Martin County prosecutor who has worked with juveniles for nearly two decades.
The people who help parents reform troubled kids have critically important jobs, Roebuck said, and have to be role models for the kids they supervise.
“At $17,000, you’re just not going to get people who are educated and highly experienced with children,” Roebuck said.
Representatives of the private contractors that run the youth programs say the programs are nearing a crisis. Teens are being hurt by young, inexperienced staff members. Workers are quitting almost as fast as programs can train them.
A Palm Beach County grand jury report last year said wages as low as $8 an hour and poor training contributed to violence and chaos at the Florida Institute for Girls. Workers sometimes locked the girls in their room, forcing them to miss school and activities, because they did not have enough people to guard them.
Increasing numbers of lawmakers say they are convinced that the salaries need to be raised. Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who chairs the Justice Appropriations Committee, announced that he will fight for enough money to increase the salaries of juvenile workers to $20,000 a year.
In most parts of the country, state governments run lockups for the most serious teen offenders. But Florida has privatized most of its wilderness programs, vocational schools and teen lockups to cut costs. Wages in privately managed programs, already lower than the state’s, then remained nearly frozen as the cost of living has risen.
The legislature has not provided a substantial budget increase for the programs in 12 years.
Mark Fontaine, who represents the private programs as head of the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, said facilities once attracted more committed workers who intended to make juvenile justice a career.
But many, he said, are now making so little money that they have to leave if a higher-paying job comes along. Three programs in northern Florida are concerned about losing staff to a Family Dollar Stores distribution center that recently opened in Marianna, Fontaine said.
Donnie Read, who oversees a vocational program for boys in Liberty County, said teenagers leaving the program can make more in welding and construction jobs than the people paid to supervise them. He competes for staff with logging crews and trucking companies in the area.
Those jobs may not be as rewarding as turning around a life, but they often pay more. And they are “a whole lot easier and less stressful,” Read said.
Many centers also lose staff to Florida’s adult prisons, where corrections officers start at $29,000 a year. But not all states have such a large gap between the adult and juvenile systems.
In Minnesota and West Virginia, for example, juvenile workers make the same wages as prison guards. And though West Virginia consistently ranks among the lowest in per-capita income, it invests more than Florida in its juvenile workers. The state pays workers in correctional facilities and less secure group homes a minimum of $20,180 a year.
Other states also aim to attract college graduates, many paying thousands more a year for a degree. In Washington state, centers employ a few security staffers who monitor security cameras and transport youths. Some are assistants with two-year college degrees, but each unit has a counselor with a bachelor’s degree who makes at least $34,092 a year.
Most staffers in Missouri also have bachelor’s degrees, and the rest are required to spend a year in training. Even overnight staffers are prepared to offer counseling and therapy.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez said he hopes more state leaders will recognize the importance of juvenile programs.
“Children are not a high priority in Florida,” Alvarez said. “Very few people in the positions of power are willing to say, ‘What will it really take to safeguard our children?’ ”
But if taxpayers don’t invest in programs to reform teen offenders, Alvarez said, they’ll be spending even more to house prisoners for decades.
“You get what you pay for down here,” Alvarez said.
JUVENILE-WORKER WAGES
Staff members who supervise teens in Florida’s privately run programs for juvenile offenders make less money a year than workers in at least 20 other states.
New Jersey – $41,834
California – $34,284
Michigan – $29,786
Ohio – $29,661
Illinois – $29,496
Minnesota – $28,309
Washington – $27,636
Georgia – $23,614
Missouri – $23,520
Virginia – $22,864
North Carolina – $21,389
Tennessee – $21,300
South Carolina – $20,643
Alabama – $20,625
Texas – $20,592
Kentucky – $20,248
West Virginia – $20,180
Louisiana – $19,344
Oklahoma – $18,292
Mississippi – $17,688
FLORIDA – $17,398
In Florida, nearly 90 percent of residential programs are managed by private contractors. The salaries listed are averages and vary program to program. They do not reflect higher wages in a small number of state programs or boot camps run by sheriff’s offices.
Sources: Florida numbers come from a January survey by the Florida Juvenile Justice Association. All the other numbers come from a Palm Beach Post survey of 20 state governments.
Copyright 2005 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
February 7, 2005 Monday
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