Senate select committee presses juvenile justice leaders on staffing, group homes and safety despite reported drop in assaults

Senate Select Committee on Women and Children Chairperson Senator Jackson Andrews heard a budget and operations briefing from the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) on Jan. 15, during which agency leaders reported year-over-year decreases in recorded assaults but acknowledged ongoing staffing and placement challenges.

The briefing focused on OJJ’s fiscal and operational priorities for the current year, including fleet replacement, contract rates for privately run group homes, and the agency’s work to expand therapeutic programming and improve staffing. “For fiscal year 25, our budget was $172,400,000,” Jason Starnes, undersecretary for Juvenile Justice, told the committee when identifying himself and the agency’s fiscal baseline.

The department provided facility-level security data intended to show progress on safety. Darren Potan, deputy assistant secretary at OJJ, told the committee the agency’s code-of-conduct data show declines between 2023 and 2024 across multiple sites. For example, at the Acadiana Center for Youth (ACY) youth-on-staff incidents fell from 95 to 51, and youth-on-youth incidents at the same facility fell from 132 to 127. Potan summarized the system-wide change as “a 41% decrease in youth on staff assaults and a 20% decrease on youth on youth assaults.”

Committee members pressed department leaders for more transparency about privately contracted group homes after OJJ said out-of-home placements are run by private providers under state contracts. Starnes said OJJ currently holds 21 contracts with private group-home providers, and that capacity can be constrained when providers lack staff. “They have indicated to us ... the need to address wages to help either recruit and or retain people in those positions,” he said. Committee members asked OJJ to provide a detailed list of contractors, number of locations per provider, licensing status, and education arrangements for youth placed in group homes.

Senator Jackson Andrews, the committee chair, also criticized the absence of family-and-community liaisons and social-services staff the committee had requested. “When members make specific request in the senate for individuals, then respectfully, absent them being sick and unable to travel, we expect state workers to answer the call when called upon to come to committee,” Andrews said, and directed OJJ to ensure facility-level staff and family advocates appear at the committee’s next meeting.

Members asked about changes tied to facility design and therapy-first programming. OJJ officials credited new facilities and staffing and training changes with part of the decline in incidents. Potan said the agency had moved many high-risk youth off the older Swanson (“old campus”) at Monroe and into a newer, single-occupancy campus that opened in 2024; he described a notable decline in incidents after that move. He also described expanded staff training and expanded education leadership as contributors to improved outcomes.

On mental-health and intake assessments, OJJ told the committee the department plans to re-open the Jetson site as a diagnostic and reception center to ensure timely medical and mental-health assessments at intake and to better match youth to appropriate placements. Officials said they are pursuing additional social-worker hires and working with contracted medical providers; OJJ also described efforts to pursue Medicaid or other federal options for funding clinical services, though staff said federal rules limit use of some Medicaid funds in secure facilities.

Senators asked whether staff in dormitory settings continued to work alone; the OJJ team said they had issued clear instructions that no officer should be left alone in a dorm and that staffing ratios (for example 1:8 by PREA standard guidance in some contexts) must be maintained. “I have instructed my staff that there should never be 1 JJS in a dorm by themselves,” said Courtney Myers, assistant secretary for OJJ.

Committee directions and next steps: senators asked OJJ to provide a written packet before the committee’s next meeting that includes the full list of group-home contracts (locations, provider names, contract counts), staffing levels and pay scales for both state-run facilities and contracted providers, facility-level incident counts (youth-on-staff and youth-on-youth) by year for 2022–2024, and documentation on family-and-community-liaison staffing and social-service roles. OJJ leaders agreed to return with facility directors and family advocates at a future meeting and to provide the requested data.

Why it matters: OJJ oversees secure and non-secure residential custody and statewide juvenile probation services. Questions about contractor capacity, staffing pay and therapeutic-program funding affect placement capacity, youth safety, and the department’s ability to deliver court-ordered services and outpatient supervision.

Ending note: Senators said they will add an OJJ follow-up to the committee’s February meeting calendar and asked the department to make the requested material available in advance so members can review contract lists and staffing details before the next hearing.