The justice courts and boards of supervisors of Apache and Navajo counties have concluded the definitive version of an intergovernmental agreement facilitating the placement of Apache County delinquent juveniles into the Navajo County Juvenile Detention Facility.
The boards of supervisors of Navajo and Apache counties approved initial adoption of the agreement on June 9 and July 7, respectively, following Apache County’s May closure of its former juvenile detention center in St. Johns, which the county cited it paid nearly $800,000 per year to operate while reportedly averaging less than two children in custody at a given time.
The agreement stipulates that Navajo County will detain up to four juveniles from the Apache County court system at the 24-bed Hope Center detention facility in Holbrook at the base cost of $90,000 per year, with any juveniles retained outside that budget to be subsidized at $130 per day per detainee.
However, the initial agreement did not address academically educating the juveniles during their detention.
During her Aug. 11 presentation, Navajo County School Superintendent Linda Morrow presented what she termed a “bridge IGA” to the Navajo County Board of Supervisors and explained that providing a solid education to the detained juveniles was an important aspect of the addendum.
“One of the things we do in collaboration with the (Navajo County) Juvenile Detention Presiding Judge (Michala M. Ruechel) is run a juvenile detention school. They are required by law to maintain school within 48 hours of being incarcerated. Our job is to make sure that we have a program and teachers in place for those children to not lose out on being in school.”
Morrow referenced this guideline to the juvenile detention precedent set by former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Frank X. Gordon Jr., whom she related during his tenure “didn’t feel it was good enough for kids just to have what was called in the old days ‘three hots and a cot.’” Morrow explained that the State of Arizona subsequently implemented schools for children who were incarcerated and set up a variety of educational programs.
“With that background knowledge, however, when Apache County came and brought their children our direction, we had some things that happened outside of all of this,” she said.
Morrow pointed out that, at the state level, Arizona’s Administrative Office of Courts maintains an intergovernmental agreement with all counties that operate juvenile detention schools. That agreement became null and void once the Apache County juvenile detention facility closed.
“We are working with both presiding judges (Michael Latham and Donna Grimsley) in Apache County, with the Apache County Superintendent of Schools (Robert Williams) and with the head of the Arizona Federation for Children in Phoenix, trying to get all this back in full, so that the monies that follow these students will be in place,” Morrow related.
A motion to accept the agreement was approved by the board, with Chairwoman Dawnafe Whitesinger commenting afterward, “I am continually reminded every time I come here of the services that we offer our community, and this is just one example of that.”
