Child welfare in Michigan is horrific which includes juvenile justice.
Speaking now as an original source, Maxey was used in the funnel system of human trafficking of child welfare when it had a strong partnership with St. Vincent Sarah Fisher. Foster children, whose cases were or could have been under investigation by the state, were typically shipped off to this contained environment to be double-jacketed and excluded from the federal audit sample pools.
Double jacket is the term used to describe the simultaneous as foster care and juvenile justice.
If and when the real Michigan policymakers, not the pathetic leadership of state elected officials, come to terms that the more it exacerbates child poverty, the more children will find it "traumatic" to leave a prison.
Prison, or Maxey, was the only avenue left for youth who have been severely medically, educationally and environmentally neglected by Michigan's unraveling of its social safety net.
Michigan economic policy experiments have only resulted in a direct correlation between child poverty and kids being "traumatized" for being released from the only family and home they have ever known, but then again, it was a high end revenue maximization scheme.
Herman McCall's testimony was only for the purposes of begging for his job as Juvenile Justice Director for the state because he steers contracts for privatization.
Martin Howrylak sounds like someone dropped some serious money in his re-election campaign.
If there is going to be criminal justice reform, it must include children and another investigation of Michigan by the DOJ.
DHHS official: Maxey closure ‘traumatic’ for some kids
LANSING - One youth ended up in jail and another went AWOL after the controversial closure of the state’s W.J. Maxey Boys Training School, a state official said in Capitol testimony Tuesday while sparring with one lawmaker about how traumatic the closure was for kids.
Herman McCall, director of juvenile justice programs for the state Department of Health & Human Services, confirmed to a legislative panel on Tuesday that one former Maxey inmate was jailed on a weapons charge and another failed to return to his new program after a weekend outing.
McCall said both youths were transferred from Maxey — a secure, state-run juvenile justice facility — to a Job Corps program after the Legislature shuttered Maxey in the budget year that began Oct. 1.
Critics of the closure — including state employee unions, judges and mental health advocates — had predicted negative consequences of closing Maxey, which they said had become a facility of last resort for some of the most troubled youth in the state. Proponents said the closure would save the state money — lawmakers trimmed $7.5 million from the budget — and that private providers could handle the youth.
DHHS stopped sending new kids to Maxey when the closure was first discussed in the spring, McCall told the state House subcommittee overseeing spending on human services programs. Of the 48 youth at Maxey when the closure was finalized, 18 went to the state’s other two juvenile justice facilities - which are now full, McCall said) - 16 went to private agencies, eight went home to relatives, three entered supervised independent living programs, two went to Job Corps and one was transferred to a county-run program, McCall said.
The first transfer happened in June and the last on Sept. 30, he said. He noted that the last boy to be transferred, recommended for mental health services, was rejected by three providers before he was ultimately accepted by a private facility. He noted private agencies wouldn’t be able to reject kids under contract changes that were mandated in the same legislation that closed Maxey.
McCall said those transfers were “another traumatic event” for the youth. Some kids regressed in their treatment, he said.
“You don’t know whether they perceive themselves as better or worse,” VerHeulen told McCall after getting the DHHS official to concede he hadn’t spoken to the youth personally.
“There is no indication every child’s life is worse than it was,” McCall answered, “but I do acknowledge the transfer was a traumatic event.”
McCall said the department planned to monitor the progress of the former Maxey youth for two years.
State Rep. Martin Howrylak, R-Troy, has introduced a bill to reopen Maxey, saying the closure won’t save as much money as supporters claim because there are hidden costs throughout the state budget.
On Tuesday, McCall told lawmakers it’ll take between six and 16 years for the state to pay off about $397 million in remaining bond debt, some of which helped fund renovations at Maxey. Earlier this summer, Howrylak pegged Maxey’s share of the debt at $20 million.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
On Tuesday, McCall told lawmakers it’ll take between six and 16 years for the state to pay off about $397 million in remaining bond debt, some of which helped fund renovations at Maxey. Earlier this summer, Howrylak pegged Maxey’s share of the debt at $20 million.
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