COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – A newly-released state audit of the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice finds that longstanding issues have persisted at the agency in the midst of federal scrutiny, making it less safe for youth.

The report, written by the Legislative Audit Council, found that only about half of the 101 recommendations made to the agency in its 2021 audit have been addressed.

Of 24 safety recommendations, the report says that only eight have been fully implemented.

DJJ contends that it has, in fact, implemented more of these recommendations than the audit team stated, and added that there was “no opportunity for the agency to engage directly with auditors to fully understand the rationale behind some findings.”

• Read more: SC DJJ Director addresses potential influx of newly-arrested Richland County teens in coming months

Chief among the concerns is frequent staff turnover, something that DJJ officials have cited for years as an issue.

The report says the problem has only gotten worse, though.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the agency over conditions there, says this audit report is further evidence that youth are routinely “alienated, victimized and retraumatized.”

One former employee, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about her experience, said she is not surprised by the report’s findings.

“It has nothing to with the age of you guys having to house, it’s DJJ,” she said. “It’s not the age of the youth, it’s the agency.”

• Read more: Ex-SC DJJ employee voices safety concerns as federal oversight continues

According to Madalyn Wasilczuk, a University of South Carolina law professor whose work specializes in juvenile detention, recruitment and retention could be the root cause of some of DJJ’s issues.

“No matter what policies and procedures are put in place, if you don’t have the staff on the ground who have the experience and training and commitment to putting those policies in place and making them work, an agency is going to struggle,” she said.

Of the 118 juvenile detention center officers the audit team reviewed that were hired in 2023, 93 had left their positions by August of this year.

Those officer stayed on the job for an average of just three months, according to the report’s findings.

Wasilczuk said there are effective interventions for trouble youth, but they require a significant amount training and resources to be successful.

“There’s a learning curve,” she said. “So if you have people cycling in and out every three months, you’re not going to have people who are experts at how to deescalate with children who can be difficult to manage, who aren’t always the easiest to get along with and I think it promotes both a mistrust between the kids and the corrections officers and between the corrections officers and the kids.”

Another concern raised in the report is access to medical care. It found that the agency does not have an adequate transportation plan in place, and that some juveniles have missed necessary medical appointments.

“That’s basically neglect,” the ex-employee said. “They did what they did and committed their crimes, but we still under oath have to treat them good. We still have things that we’re supposed to do. They’re still children, and it’s very delicate with children.”

Progress, however, was noted in some areas.

The agency has added more than 1,100 state-of-the-art cameras at its facilities since 2021, and has taken steps to increase salaries and hold staff with disciplinary offenses accountable.

Wasilczuk said systemic change will not come until the state stops locking up children for status offenses, which are things that would not be considered crimes if they were adults.

“We do need to look at these back-end resources, but we also have to look at what we’re doing on the front-end, what cases we decide children should be arrested and detained in, and stop using our resources on status offenses, on school discipline issues that are appropriately dealt with as school discipline issues rather than as crimes,” she said. “If we don’t deal with that front-end problem, there’s no amount of back-end work that is going to fix the problem. We just would never have that much resources.”

DJJ’s Executive Director Eden Hendrick was not available for an interview on Thursday, but in a statement she discussed a number of headwinds that the agency is facing which can make progress difficult.

Among them: legislation that raised the maximum age for teen offenders in the criminal justice system from 17 to 18, a backlog of court cases and the closure of two county jail juvenile wings in Richland and Greenville County.

Last week, a legislative committee voted to approve $3 million to open up the vacant Greenville facility to address overcrowding at DJJ facilities.

The lease on the Greenville facility begins in January, but it will not open until staff has been properly trained, a DJJ spokesperson said. No timeline has been established for when it may start housing youth.

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