THE MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

To meet needs identified by a 1994 Senate Juvenile Justice Study Committee, in 1995 the Legislature authorized and funded the construction and equipping of two fifty-bed special needs facilities, one for mentally retarded adolescent offenders (the Brookhaven facility, which began accepting clients in July 1999) and one for mentally ill adolescent offenders (the Harrison County facility, scheduled to begin accepting clients in November 2001). These facilities were intended to be separate from existing mental health and juvenile justice facilities.

The enabling statute, MISS. CODE ANN. Section 41-21-109, defines the purpose of these special needs facilities:

The BJRF is designed and equipped appropriate to its charge of providing a “secure and therapeutic environment” for treating mentally retarded adolescents committed by youth or chancery court.

Concerning construction costs, the Department of Mental Health (DMH) expended a total of $9.2 million to construct and equip the Brookhaven Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility. The department used approximately $8 million of the $11 million in bonds authorized (the amount intended for constructing and equipping both the Brookhaven and Harrison County facilities), as well as $1.2 million in operating funds. Construction of a warehouse and director’s residence not contemplated in the initial authority or planning for the facility added over $1 million to the cost of the facility.

Current admission practices at the Brookhaven Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility are not in keeping with statutory requirements and have resulted in a move away from addressing the special need for which the facility was created. In addition to commitment by court order, which is the only admission method contemplated in state law, BJRF admits juveniles through transfers from other mental health facilities.

The Department of Mental Health and BJRF staff developed the transfer methods of admission to BJRF from existing departmental policy and a statute addressing transfers between mental health facilities not specific to this special needs facility. PEER takes the position that the specific requirement found in MISS. CODE ANN. Section 41-21-109 (that the purpose of the facility is to accept mentally ill or retarded persons committed by a court) should control admissions to BJRF.

Because its admission practices limit treatment services to a segment of the intended population and extend services to unqualified juveniles, the Department of Mental Health has only partially fulfilled its legal mandate for BJRF. The department has not admitted any females to the Brookhaven facility, thus denying this important resource to a significant population of eligible juvenile offenders. Since its opening in 1998, nearly thirty percent of BJRF’s clients have been transferred from other mental health institutions, rather than having been committed by court order. These transfers take bed space that could be used by members of the targeted population. In effect, the Department of Mental Health has discouraged treatment of violent offenders at BJRF.

During the first two years of BJRF’s existence, some of the staff was not completely prepared for the aggressive behavior of clients. There was also significant staff turnover during this time. BJRF now has adequate numbers of direct care and education staff, and provides sufficient staff orientation training, but because the Department of Mental Health has changed BJRF’s clientele from what is legally mandated, PEER cannot assess the facility’s readiness to provide services to its intended target population.

Although BJRF’s method of providing security appears adequate to protect the clients and staff within the population currently being served, changing the population to the intended target group could compromise the adequacy of the facility’s security.

It is too early in the life of the Brookhaven Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility program to make definitive statements about program quality and success. However, PEER noted problems with the staff not uniformly implementing the positive reinforcement behavior modification plan and internal disagreements on the proper role and form of discipline for the facility. Also, BJRF has not developed measures of program success. Particularly, there are no indicators of the potential long-term impact the Brookhaven Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility program may have on the lives and adaptive successes of its clients upon discharge to the community and how such successes might be measured and tracked.

Facility Construction

1. For future construction projects, DMH should utilize the planning process to identify and accurately quantify all project costs, set budgets, and monitor progress to minimize expenditures beyond those funds authorized. DMH should follow the intent expressed in legislative grants of authority for project funding, by disallowing expenditure of funds for expansion of facilities (e.g., the addition of staff housing or a warehouse), thereby causing project cost overruns.

2. DMH should conform its admissions decisions to comply with statutory criteria as set forth in MISS. CODE ANN. Section 41-21-109, which limits admissions to mentally ill or mentally retarded juvenile offenders who have been committed for treatment by a court of competent jurisdiction.

3. DMH should promptly inform all youth and chancery court judges in the state that it will fully comply with the admission intent expressed in MISS. CODE ANN. Section 41-21-109.

4. DMH should clearly define the relationship between the Brookhaven facility and the Harrison County facility regarding the placement of “dual diagnosis” juvenile offenders and disseminate this information to the state’s youth and chancery court judges for their use in making commitment decisions.

5. After achieving compliance with statutory admission requirements, DMH should assess its direct care staffing needs to establish the appropriate levels of direct care staff needed for treatment of the intended population of mentally ill or mentally retarded juvenile offenders.

6. Management and education staff should continue efforts to qualify for and obtain State Department of Education accreditation by adhering to standards for classroom staffing--i.e., maintaining the required level of teaching personnel.

7. Recognizing the statutory required purpose of BJRF, and that ICF/MR (intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded) standards are limited in their application to treating this special needs population, BJRF management and DMH staff should continue to develop policies and procedures specific to the BJRF program.

8. In keeping with the statutory mandate, BJRF management and appropriate staff should develop and offer training consistent with the role of providing treatment to the state’s mentally ill and mentally retarded juvenile population.

9. DMH and facility management should develop and define an accurate set of outcome measures, install a system to capture relevant data, and annually assess and report performance for the BJRF program.

PEER Home Page Full Text PDF (636K)