Terrebonne special athletes go for gold
September 21, 2010
Geraldine Spencer
September 23, 2010
The Lafourche Parish Juvenile Justice Facility serves a greater purpose than solely housing delinquent minors.
In addition to a juvenile detention center, the facility has emergency shelter and group home programs to provide care for abused and neglected children. Opened in 1984, the LPJJF claims to have served 8,500 children and families in need.
“There was a broad consensus in 1981 that we didn’t want to send our kids away,” facility administrator James Licalzi said. “It just didn’t make sense; they might end up in Monroe or somewhere else in the state, and all the linkages and connections between the child and the family would be broken.”
LPJJF receives $2 million annually from a 3.2 millage rate, which accounts for roughly 55 to 60 percent of their budget, according to Licalzi. The rest of their revenue comes from contracts with the Department of Children Youth and Family Services.
The millage is set to expire in 2011, and the renewal will appear on the Oct. 2 election ballot. If it passes, it will be in place for 10 years starting in 2012.
“The tax, for me, is setting the foundation for the next administration,” said Licalzi, who has been with LPJJF since it opened. “We created something from nothing and helped it mature through its adolescence, which is a metaphor for what we do.”
When the facility first opened, it had a second, five-year millage for construction bonds. LPJJF paid the tax in just two years, and the construction tax was not collected for the next two years.
“I think when you see us executing that frugality from the very beginning, we’ve managed to move through 25 audits without any issues, and I think that is indicative of how we approach fiscal responsibility,” Licalzi said. “Primarily, because of the nature of what we do, personnel services is the majority of our budget. … We provide people and relationships.”
But not all is well financially. The facility, constructed 25 years ago, is an “aging plant,” Licalzi said, and recent upgrades and the “incredible cost increase in operations” have management considering benefit cuts for employees. LPJJF replaced the air conditioning and upgraded security cameras in the past two years.
The detention center and emergency shelter average 125 youth per year and the group home averages 26 juveniles per year, Licalzi said. The emergency shelter and group home programs will soon be combined and will offer 27 beds.
The staff teaches children leadership and independent living qualities. They bring the children to Walmart and give them an allotment to spend on hygiene products and food, but they leave it up to the children to budget and make their own purchases.
The facility also has a Ropes Challenge Course, which they use for team building and leadership exercises. The course has a 50-foot rock climbing wall, a tower and a zip line, and it offers outpatient programming for public groups or corporations.
LPJJF also offers free advice and recommendations for struggling families who don’t know where else to turn.
Licalzi reasoned that if each child who has come through the LPJJF has two parents and one sibling, they have served more than 32,000 people in 26 years.
“Ultimately, our goal is to act as quickly and responsibly as possible, return that child to their families in such a way that everyone is safe, and that they can function as a normal, intact family and kids can continue to prosper,” he said.
“We know that if we can bring about changes in family systems so that they can improve in the way that they raise their children, the decision-making that they make with their children, that we create a foundation for the rest of the kids in the family to succeed. In that way, they don’t come into the system.”
Dion Wright works the control room in the Lafourche Parish Juvenile Justice Facility Detention Center. The Detention Center is only one program in the LPJJF, which also houses neglected and abused minors. ERIC BESSON – TRI-PARISH TIMES
