Bureaucracy and the Law in Book Seven: Reconstruction 2020

Truly, working inside the government in any fashion proves just how unlikely LARGE SCALE conspiracies are. Small scale? Like the CIA killing US Citizens or the FBI planting agitators in the Black Panthers? Easy. But the kind of shit where dozens of agencies have to work together to pull off a seamless conspiracy to fool the general public? Impossible and I’ll show you why.

Our county is home to what I’ll essentially call “Scary Teen Station” or STS. Throughout the entire state, if a male under the age of 18 is a repeat delinquent offender to the point where the Delinquency System has tried everything… they send that boy to our county to be in the STS. Now, for 40 years that facility has been run like a Correctional Facility. The problem being… Juvenile Delinquency, by law, is a Department of Human Safety (DHS)/Department of Public Safety (DPS) matter. NOT a Department of Corrections (DOC) matter. A good friend of mine successfully sued our asses off in a Disability Rights of Iowa V case to get the courts to file a specific order requiring the STS to cease acting like a DOC facility and start acting like a DHS/DPS facilty. This has caused many issues that we are still attempting to resolve. For instance… these kids are “the worst of the worst” and we’re not allowed to use any DOC tactics or training or funding. This is a massive problem when these are (in some cases) active gang members or individuals that routinely beat the shit out of STS staff. And they do. Every month I get reports of one or two boys who have just… beat to fuck out of one or more of the staff. BUT we have to treat this like a DHS/DPS facility. Without increased funding. Or the ability to control these kids.

What inspired this particular entry today? Two things.

First:
We are having a bitch of a time getting these kids fingerprinted. And it has everything to do with Different Departments and Different Laws for Different Departments. It started back last year....

These children must be fingerprinted in our county when they commit an offense in our county. Therefore, when these children assault the staff at the STS, we must fingerprint them. FIRST HURDLE: BUT DHS/DPS is not a fingerprinting agency. So, the obvious NO DUH solution would be for the Law Enforcement Agency to fingerprint these kids. SECOND HURDLE: The STS is in the County Seat where both City PD and Sheriff’s Station are located. City PD says it is the Sheriff’s Department that should fingerprint due to resource allocation and the level of violence these kids commit. Sheriff says (and I agree) that they are the County Wide Law Enforcement and the only Law Enforcement available for a majority of towns in the county since they have no City PD. Therefore, STS is within the City limits, City PD is required to do the fingerprinting. THIRD HURDLE: City PD is quibbling about transportation, housing, and process. Because there are options there and none of them are good. PD could go to the STS and fingerprint there but there are issues which have been recently highlighted that I’ll get to. PD could go to the STS, arrest the kids, bring them to the Sheriff’s station, have them processed for the jail and fingerprinted there… but these are Juvenile Delinquents and cannot be processed through the adult jail system without extensive court hearings. OR the PD could collect the child from the STS, bring the child to the PD station, fingerprint the child, then return the child to the STS… but the PD doesn’t want to do that because they think that is too much travel, puts their staff in too much risk, all for the child to basically get a “finger printing field trip.” THAT’S JUST WHAT WE WERE DEALING WITH LAST YEAR

This year… fun new additional wrinkles. According to the law for DHS and DPS, these children MUST BE FINGERPRINTED at time of charge. One of these kids assaults an STS staff member, we charge him with the assault, by law he needs to be fingerprinted. EXCEPT what if the child refuses to comply with a finger print request?? This has been happening a lot (because, duh, a lot of these kids are in the STS due to a violent rejection of any authority). The law for DHS/DPS says it must be done. So, I talk it over with our Delinquency Judge. Can we get a court order at time of charging that requires these kids to get fingerprinted and, failing to do so, results in a contempt of court charge?? At least give the requirement some teeth to force compliance? NOPE. According to Delinquency Law, the Judge may not order any action (including contempt) until the Juvenile has been adjudicated delinquent on the charge brought against him. SO… reconcile that. AT CHARGING, due to the law, we must fingerprint. BUT… due to the law, the court cannot require a child to get fingerprinted until AFTER adjudication.

This is where, and I really hate even THINKING about this, we can get in a lot more very serious trouble. Because if we are required BY LAW to do something but the courts aren’t allowed BY LAW to enforce the requirement.... we may seem some… use of force. And yeah… from one perspective… some punk ass gang banger being roughed up by the cops isn’t something some people would care about. BUT PERSPECTIVE MATTERS. Change the thought process. Consider it from “15 year old in DHS custody was injured today when 45 year old police officer dislocated the boy’s shoulder.”

So that’s the first Bureaucracy Tango. We start with a “Who’s got the button” game where the PD doesn’t want to do their job… and layer that with competing laws that require us to do something while preventing the court from enforcing that exact thing.

SECOND Issue?

This one is more so a bureaucratic bungle but… if STS is now DHS/DPS, when an assault happens… call the cops, right? Even my boss thinks this is true because it makes the most sense. Crime happens, call the police, police get involved, issue resolved, right? NOT IN THIS CASE. Because while the children are IN the STS, they are legally considered to be “in custody.” This is a legally important distinction. IN CUSTODY BY DHS/DPS means that there are additional players that are required to be notified, included, and relied upon for decision making. Because in a DOC Facility “in custody” means that they are criminals and every criminal act should receive criminal justice attention. In DHS/DPS Facility “in custody” it means that they are Juveniles in Need of Service and every criminal act should receive a DHS review to determine if it is related to the services provided, if more services are needed, or if further Delinquency Intervention is required. Therefore, the proper list of people to inform would be considerably more than “the police.” We must always inform the Juvenile Court Offender Field Supervisor (JCOFS). The JCOFS has the final say on what happens. Is this kid a thief who escalated once inside the STS? Is this a violent kid who has assaulted every authority figure he’s run into? Is this a gang member who might be trying to make his bones and get placed in an adult facility? There are a LOT more things to consider than simply “Criminal Action, Call the Cops.”

Ultimately? The whole STS thing is… difficult. We still haven’t developed the procedural changes mandated by the court from the DRI lawsuit because… re-writing 40 years of procedure without additional funding while still keeping the facility running while staff are getting assaulted all the time… then add to that COVID… we’re behind as it is on trying to reshape policy. With these bureaucratic hurdles… it is even more difficult.