The union representing Department of Juvenile Services employees is calling on the agency to fill vacancies at the state's detention facility for violent youth, saying that staffing shortages regularly put its workers at risk.
Leaders with the AFSCME Maryland Council 3 held a press conference Wednesday at Victor Cullen Center in Frederick County, where several staffers were injured in a melee involving some of the youth in detention.
Union leaders say that the department's 11 percent vacancy rate, and its recent budget cuts that included eliminating 40 permanent positions, will create more unsafe conditions for staff.
They said this is particularly true for Victor Cullen, the state's "hardware secure" facility (the most restrictive setting behind barb-wire fences) for boys. Victor Cullen has had a long troubled history, and the state's juvenile justice monitoring unit recently found that safety and security challenges persist.
Patrick Moran, president of the union that represents about 1,200 DJS workers, said that the bulk of the roughly 200 vacant and eliminated positions are "front-line staff," such as case managers, residential specialists and others who deal directly with youth. He also said the department hires more administrators than necessary.
He said that staffing shortages have been persistent in the department, but "it's coming to a head."
"This is a matter of safety, providing the best environment for these at-risk kids," Moran said. "Our members hope that when there's a melee, because there isn't enough eyes and ears on the ground, the kids don't hurt themselves and staff or come out of it with their faces pounded in."
Audra Harrison, spokeswoman for the Department of Juvenile Services, said the agency has been aggressively recruiting staff, participating in one dozen recruitment fairs since March with eight more planned through November. Additionally, the department has hired more than 50 staff for its facilities, including 24 for Victor Cullen, she said.
The DJS contends that the union overstated the department's vacancy rate, and that recent budget cuts reflected a reduction in youth placed in state facilities. The department also disputes that it hires too many administrators and says it has reduced the number of managers to reflect a decrease in juvenile cases.
Harrison also noted that just last month there was a "mass call-out" of staff at Victor Cullen, with nine staff members calling in sick during 12 shifts over the weekend.
Department officials argued that the group disturbance in March had no correlation to staffing levels, which far exceed the number of youth at Victor Cullen. The facility currently houses 27 youths and has 45 staff members, which department officials said exceed the required ratio.
"So while recruiting and retaining competent staff who can protect the safety of those in our facilities while providing youth the treatment they need can be a challenge, incidents like the mass call out we saw last month at Cullen are counterproductive to the concerns the union is raising today and jeopardize the safe operation of our facilities," Harrison said.
But Terra Smith, a resident advisor at Victor Cullen, said she and her co-workers are at their wits end. She said her colleagues who were working during the melee had worked overnight and were required to work overtime into the day shift.
"It's hard to take control of a situation when you're already tired, haven't rested, and you're up against youth who are fully rested and had their meals," she said.
Smith said she's experienced "extraordinary" exhaustion in her nearly five years working at the facility. And she said her anxiety has increased recently and that she has begun throwing up in the parking lot before work. She said Cullen has a new, supportive administration that is making positive changes but the staffing shortages are hindering progress.
"We try to develop these young men into productive members of the community," Smith said. "But the juveniles at Victor Cullen are not the easiest. We need to be safe for them and for ourselves."
erica.green@baltsun.com
twitter.com/EricaLG