Feb
14
Statewide tracking slated for workers in juvenile justice
Filed Under juvenile justice, privatization | Comments Off
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Florida will keep a central record of every public and private worker at juvenile justice programs to help stop the recycling of employees with histories of violence and incompetence, state officials say.
A Palm Beach Post investigation published in December found hundreds of juvenile justice workers fired for abuse or misconduct who were hired again in centers run by different companies. Most supervisors at those centers did not know they had hired employees with records of beating or abusing teens in their care.
State officials do not now know who works at the more than 100 programs for teen offenders that are funded by taxpayers but operated by private companies and nonprofit organizations.
The creation of the statewide employee database will allow the Department of Juvenile Justice to tell its 40 private contractors, which manage nearly all of Florida’s residential treatment programs, whether a job applicant has worked at a similar facility. Officials don’t yet know what other information will be included.
“We want to make sure we are hiring the right people to work with our kids,” Juvenile Justice Inspector General Lynne Winston said Friday.
The state’s lack of a database like the one the Post compiled during its investigation allowed many bad employees to continue working in the field, despite personnel records at their previous companies specifically noting they were not eligible to be rehired.
In some cases, workers lied about job histories on their applications. In others, hiring supervisors tried to check with previous employers, but were stymied by companies that gave neutral references. Several contractors lost employee files, and other records disappeared when private contractors went out of business.
Under the inspector general’s plan, the contractors that run programs for the state will enter the date of hiring and date of termination for every person who works around teen offenders.
Supervisors at both state and private programs could check the database for an employee’s information. Winston said she hopes it will be in use by April.
The Department of Juvenile Justice now notifies its contractors if a prospective employee has a criminal record, was investigated by the state or has applied to work elsewhere in the system. A more complete record of where and when everyone worked will help tighten that screening, Winston said.
Mark Fontaine, who represents the state’s private contractors as head of the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, said he welcomes the database.
The goal is clear, he said. Workers with a record of hurting teens should not get jobs in residential programs.
“Nobody wants to hire those people, and no one wants the liability of having those people,” Fontaine said.
Copyright 2005 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
February 14, 2005 Monday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 460 words