Sedgwick County could start juvenile offender program by October

Sedgwick County could start a new program to treat juvenile offenders inside the county as soon as October.

County commissioners will vote in two weeks on a juvenile justice program that would serve as an alternative to reopening the shuttered Judge Riddel Boys Ranch or opening a similar facility for at-risk juvenile offenders.

The county’s corrections department will create a team to deliver behavioral programming to at-risk youth within Sedgwick County. It will aim to develop competence in social skills, moral reasoning, anger management and problem-solving skills among juvenile offenders, according to the program proposal.

“This is what really is critical to addressing changes in criminal thinking, values and attitudes,” said corrections director Mark Masterson.

It will cost the county $72,000 for this fiscal year to get the program up and running by October, Masterson said.

If the commissioners approve the staffing change, it will take two months to recruit, hire and train five county workers by the Oct. 1 start date.

Masterson said the program would target youths ages 13 to 19 who are at moderate or high risk of reoffending for a new crime.

It would provide services on top of what’s provided for local juveniles at youth residential center II facilities, the classification the Judge Riddel Boys Ranch fell under when it was operating.

The boys ranch closed last summer after commissioners said the county could not afford to subsidize it. Former ranch residents and potential residents were sent home or to youth residential centers in the county or across the state.

Some county commissioners have expressed interest in reopening the ranch or opening a similar facility in the county to keep youth offenders closer to home.

“Kids have got to be local,” Commissioner Jim Howell said at a staff meeting earlier this week. “Sending kids across the state has been my biggest complaint.”

It would take $1.9 million to reopen the ranch or pay another provider to operate a youth residential center, according to a 2016 county budget proposal from last month.

Masterson said the alternative program could serve around 100 youth offenders a year after an initial start-up period. He hopes it could keep 90 percent of juveniles who need a youth residential center II facility in the county.

“One secret to success about Judge Riddel Boys Ranch was being close to home where you have the family to work with along with their kid,” Masterson said.

Masterson said the name of Judge James V. Riddel could live on with the proposed program.

With the ranch closed, four youth residential centers serve the county: the Lakeside Academy in Goddard, the Riverside Academy, the Salvation Army in Wichita and the Sedgwick County Youth Program, Masterson said.

The centers in the county have a capacity of 123 beds, according to recent data presented at the meeting. Fourteen of those are beds for female offenders.

“I’m hoping these numbers don’t grow and, in fact, go the other way and we don’t need as much capacity in Sedgwick County,” Commissioner Tim Norton said.

The program would also include a department-wide shift to a family engagement model, which emphasizes strengthening a family’s structure.

“It works a lot better when you have the family involved than if you have the kid and send them away someplace,” Masterson said.

For fiscal year 2016, the cognitive behavior programming would cost the county $292,400. The shift to the family engagement model would cost $145,000 in 2016 and $65,000 in 2017, both one-time costs.

Masterson said he wasn’t sure when the 2016 funding would be decided upon.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County could start juvenile offender program by October."