The court’s budget is split between court operations and the detention center for a total of $6.6 million proposed for next year. Court Administrator Rob Clevenger said officials sliced from the court operations side to comply with the first wave of cuts, eliminating three open full-time clerk positions and a part-time administrative assistant among other adjustments.
Clevenger said for next year they are also leaving open one part-time magistrate and a part-time transcriptionist positions. To meet the budget reduction guidelines they must eliminate two vacant full-time youth leader positions, shutting down one unit — 12 beds for male detainees — in the 48-bed detention center.
“We can’t go any deeper on the court side so then the only other thing we’ve got is we’ve got detention,” he told the Journal-News. “With detention all you have there, because of standards and bed capacity and all of those kinds of things, all we have then is the elimination of a unit.”
Clevenger said while this is “not the most prudent” option the court has always tried to be a “team player” during tough financial times and they hope the county’s finances will improve and they won’t need to pull the trigger.
There haven’t been more than 24 juveniles locked up at a time since March because court filings have been down, but “we worry that ‘normalcy’ might lead to increased bed demand.” He said 94% of the males are being held on felony offenses and 72% are “gun-involved youth.” Because of the lower numbers they have been able to survive the coronavirus because they have kept the youth socially distanced.
The commissioners meet with all the office holders, department heads and independent boards during budget hearings in October. Clevenger and the judges are scheduled for Oct. 19.
Commissioner Don Dixon said they are concerned about the Juvenile Court budget predicament and they don’t intend to approach the budget cuts in a vacuum.
“That issue with the Juvenile Detention Center, we made it real clear that we’re going to have plenty of discussion on those sorts of issues and that’s obviously one of the issues we would not want to see happen,” Dixon said. “I really anticipate there’s going to be a lot of movement on a lot of different issues but that one in particular, I don’t think anybody wants to see that close. So there’s going to be a lot of exceptions to the budgets I’m sure.”
Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said it is concerning to hear the court might have to reduce the detention center population because the young people are particularly vulnerable in this current coronavirus environment.
“Stress is on the increase and we have to consider that when we’re allocating resources to help young people, especially because they may be the least likely to be able to control impulses, as we already know,” Gmoser said. “We wouldn’t have a juvenile court system if they were able to control impulses. Any stressors like that have to be addressed and probably in my opinion should take priority over some other expenses.
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