Douglas County youth center reports 45 admissions in July; commissioners raise concerns over long stays, racial disparities and placement waits

Dr. Abby Carbaugh presented the Douglas County Youth Center's July report to the County Board on Aug. 19, detailing admissions, lengths of stay, demographics and placement waits.

Carbaugh said DCYC had 45 admissions in July — 6 youth charged in adult court, 38 charged in juvenile court and 1 youth from another county. The facility's average daily population for July was 86 (a low of 82 and a high of 90). She said six youth were screened for the HOME program (Home on Monitoring and Engagement), with four accepted.

On charges, Carbaugh said 8 of the 44 Douglas County admissions were weapons‑related: six firearm possession and two firearm use charges. "One of these firearms was used in the commission of a homicide," she said. Six weapons cases were felonies and one a misdemeanor. Non‑weapon felonies and misdemeanors and technical violations or probation violations comprised the remainder of admissions.

Carbaugh gave breakdowns of average lengths of stay for released youth: adult‑charged youth averaged about 232 days prior to release; juvenile predisposition youth averaged 62 days; juvenile probationers with new charges averaged 54 days; juvenile probationers without new charges averaged 36 days; and out‑of‑jurisdiction youth averaged about 69 days.

As of Aug. 11 (a snapshot presented to the board), DCYC had 85 youth in custody: 33 in adult court and 50 in juvenile court. Carbaugh said 88% of the population was youth of color and 89% male.

Carbaugh told commissioners seven youth had court orders pending release as of Aug. 14 and were awaiting placements: one state ward waiting for a PRTF (psychiatric residential treatment facility), two waiting for group homes, three waiting for shelter or approved placements and one cleared for release home with probation services in place. Those seven youth had been waiting an average of 19 days (range 1–65) for placement.

Commissioners questioned long waits and lengths of stay and noted capacity issues: Commissioner Cavanaugh confirmed the new ‘‘empty kids jail’’ across the street has a nominal capacity of 64 but said gender and module constraints reduce practical capacity; he noted the county's detained youth population has consistently exceeded that capacity and the new facility across the street has remained unused since opening.

Commissioners and public commenters raised concerns about demographic disparities and special populations. Attorney Terry Crawford (speaking for the local NAACP chapter) told the board he is seeing a growing number of non‑English speakers and refugee youth on his caseload and asked how competency evaluations and placement waits were tracked for those youth. Carbaugh said youth sent to the Lincoln Regional Center or out to competency evaluations would be tracked as temporary leaves from the census while awaiting return but offered to provide further details on tracking.

Carbaugh said DCYC had placements and service referrals pending and encouraged coordination with state probation and placement authorities to reduce waits. Commissioners suggested the board could press state partners and probation to reduce placement delays and consider policy changes to increase predisposition alternatives.

No formal board action was taken during the presentation; commissioners requested further information on census definitions, historical population comparisons and placement timing.