JUDGE SAYS AGENCIES FAIL YOUTH COURT

DURHAM -- When it opened 14 months ago as the first program of its
kind in North Carolina, Durham's pacesetting "youth treatment court"
was billed as an excellent way to help juveniles overcome drug
problems and avoid a life of crime.

District Court Judge Marcia Morey, who presides over the special
court, still considers it to be a great concept.

But Morey also says she is discouraged and frustrated by forces
beyond her control.

She said the new $100,000-a-year court is not living up to its
potential because of bureaucratic red tape, understaffing and a lack
of cooperation among agencies that should pull together.

"It's not the court's fault," Morey said in an interview. "But we
shouldn't have a special court if we aren't delivering what must be
provided. The state is pouring a bunch of money in here. We need to
deliver . . We are dealing with kids who need intensive treatment. If
they can't get it, there's no use having this specialty court."

Morey said the court dutifully issues orders and recommendations to
help its 16 young participants.

"It is crystal clear what is supposed to be done," she said. "We
should be able to assume that the process will go forward."

Unfortunately, the process often comes to a halt before it has barely
begun, according to Morey.

She cited the case of a boy who was twice referred to psychological
evaluations during six months of probation. For unspecified reasons
that may have involved bureaucratic bungling, the evaluations were
not done, Morey said.

Then the boy's probation expired and it was too late for court intervention.

In addition, Morey said, the Durham County Department of Social
Services has interfered by appealing three of her decisions to send
children to residential drug treatment in other counties. She said
she made the decisions because of a lack of available treatment
locally.

According to Morey, DSS should have cooperated with the court system
and put the children's welfare foremost. Instead, the social agency
apparently was obsessed with bureaucratic protocol, she said.

"Their position was that a judge couldn't order a kid into
residential treatment," Morey added. "They said it must be a DSS
decision. So they appealed."

The appeals are pending.

Morey said that because of bureaucratic fragmentation, it even has
been difficult to pinpoint who is responsible for administering drug
tests to youths.

"Sometimes it doesn't get done," she said. "Everyone is just assuming
someone else is doing it."

Last month, Morey became so frustrated that she threatened to hold
the county's mental-health director and three other officials in
contempt of court for allegedly dragging their feet with a
15-year-old sex offender in need of treatment.

While the 15-year-old was in regular juvenile court and not the youth
treatment court, his case was a sad example of the same type of
bureaucratic inefficiency, Morey said.

On July 31, a court order was issued to send the boy quickly into
treatment for his sexual deviancy. Instead, he spent six weeks in the
county Youth Home and tried to commit suicide in September.

County officials testified that they were unable to find an
appropriate treatment resource.

As it turned out, Morey refrained from holding anyone in contempt of
court, but she gave the mental-health director and others a judicial
tongue-lashing.

"Everyone says it's not their responsibility," Morey told them. "If
that holds, then no one is responsible for any juvenile order or
court order."

While such problems plague the entire judicial system, they are
particularly apparent in the youth treatment court, Morey said.

"It's all about accountability," she told The Herald-Sun. "We have
not been accountable. I don't like issuing orders that are
meaningless. Court orders need to be carried out.

"It has been hard to get almost anything done," Morey added. "It's
hard to get school records, it's hard to find out what mental-health
services have been offered, it's hard to get parents to fill out
Medicaid forms, it's hard to get the police to issue juvenile
paperwork on time."

Transportation also is affected.

Morey said many children need a ride from school to drug-treatment
centers, but rides are not available - even though two new vans often
sit unused at the Durham MAJORS program with no one to drive them.

MAJORS is an acronym for Managing Access to Juvenile Offender
Resources and Services. The program, which suffers from chronic
understaffing, is designed to provide substance-abuse treatment for
certain juvenile delinquents.

Generally, MAJORS participants have committed more serious offenses
than those in the youth treatment court.

But if the common goal is to help troubled young people, why can't
someone else use the MAJORS vans when they are sitting idle? Morey
wondered aloud.

"We need to find ways to share each other's resources and get out of
our archaic ways," she said.

With that in mind, Morey has drafted an "interagency cooperation
agreement" aimed at achieving exactly what its name implies: greater
cooperation among various agencies that are supposed to help troubled
youths. Morey said she hopes the agreement will be signed next month
and will go a long way toward helping fragmented bureaucracies pull
together.

"Everyone must get out of their ruts and interact with others," the
judge said. "Now everyone is just totally scattered."

Donnie Phillips, Durham's chief juvenile court counselor, said last
week he already has identified a way to help.

Phillips said one of his assistants will be assigned exclusively to
oversee children in the youth treatment court. In the past, such
oversight has been dealt out among numerous counselors who had other
duties to perform at the same time.

"It was an impossible task to do it all," Phillips added. "Now the
focus will be on one person who can be more accountable. This is
nothing new and inventive. It's something we should have been doing
all along. We will do it now."

Stephen Ashby, director of the Durham Center, which is responsible
for mental-health services in the county, said last week he has long
been "totally dedicated" to cooperation among agencies.

Ashby also described himself as a booster for Morey's youth treatment court.

"We have been as active as anybody in wanting that court to work," he
said. "I think it's an excellent concept. The need is definitely
there. A lot more kids are getting in trouble. Much of it has to do
with substance abuse."

Ashby said it is unfair to criticize a program like MAJORS, which
falls under his control, for not cooperating fully.

According to Ashby, the program is doing everything it can to help,
but it is hampered by understaffing and bureaucratic boundaries that
cannot be violated.

"It's very difficult to hire and maintain people in these types of
jobs," he said. "Obviously, when you have vacancies, you have less
ability to serve."

MAJORS has a $180,000 grant that is intended to cover, among other
things, the salaries of three full-time counselors and a coordinator.
As of last week, two of the three counselor positions were vacant,
Ashby said.

He also said Durham's youth treatment court may be expecting more of
MAJORS than it was designed to provide.

"MAJORS is a very specialized service," he said. "It's not a
one-size-fits-all answer to every child's substance-abuse problems."

If the program ignores its official guidelines and tries to do more,
it would be in danger of losing its grant, Ashby added.

He said that, for the same reason, the program's two vans cannot be
loaned to another agency even when they are sitting idle.

"Are these vans being underutilized because the program is
understaffed?" he asked. "The answer is yes. Can they be used for
other purposes? The answer is no. It would be wonderful if we could
loan them. But we are not allowed to do that."

Linda Allsberry is director of Child, Youth and Family Services for
the Durham Center, a job that puts her over the MAJORS program.

"If I had a magic wand, I would have all the staff I need and that
would be that," she said Friday. "But I don't have a magic wand. The
reality is that we have a lot of staff turnover. People move on to
pursue other career goals and higher-paying jobs."

Still, Allsberry said, her agency will do all it can within its means
to help the youth treatment court.

"We are very enthusiastic about what this court is trying to
achieve," she said. "The beauty of this court is that it offers
treatment and not just punishment. It's never too late to help. The
message of this court is, 'We don't want you to sit in jail. We want
to help you get well and achieve your potential.' "