EASTON, Pa. - Northampton County Council members are hashing out what they can do to ease staffing shortages at the Juvenile Justice Center, without the power to adjust wages.
The facility has been operating with fewer than 25% of a full complement of youth care workers, the front line staff directly responsible for the children staying there.
- Northampton County’s Juvenile Justice Center has less than a quarter of the youth care workers it needs to operate at full capacity
- County council members say they want to help the center attract more staff, but can’t raise wages directly
- The shortage has created difficult conditions for people working there, who often work mandatory 16-hour shifts several days a week
In order to meet state-set thresholds of workers to residents, Juvenile Justice Center Administrator JaMarr Billman said the center has been turning away 3-5 kids from other counties per day, limiting who is accepted into its treatment programs, and mandating overtime for the people who work there.
The council and facility administrators explored a handful of options to attract more workers at Wednesday's county budget hearing.
District Court Administrator Jermaine Greene suggested using county money to offer hiring and retention bonuses to current and future employees, a plan similar to what the council did earlier this year to help with a staff shortage at the county’s Gracedale Nursing Home. The Gracedale plan used federal COVID money, which of which officials say the county has since used.
Council President Lori Vargo Heffner pitched a plan to offer workers assistance paying off student loans, as youth care workers have to have at least 60 hours of college credits.
Greene asked the council to create 15-20 temporary part-time youth care positions at the center, which he said the county has had more success filling. The request is expected to come up for a vote at the Nov. 17 county council meeting, provided it makes it through committee.
Council members appeared eager to find solutions to the center’s problems, but as part of budget planning the council is still in the ideas phase.
Money issues
“Let me ask you a stupid question,” council member Kerry Meyers asked the two administrators. “Is money the issue, or is it the job? And be honest.”
“It’s money,” Billman replied.
Youth care workers start off making $16.46 an hour; Billman told council in October that he needs to be able to offer $20 an hour to compete for workers with other juvenile facilities or area employers like Amazon.
But the council can’t simply raise their wages, because the county’s youth care workers are represented by a union, the American Federation of County Executive and Municipal Employees. Their wages are set through negotiations between union representatives and County Executive Lamont McClure.
Dealing with the shortage
Greene told the council that he has started asking former youth care workers from across the court system he oversees to come back and work overtime at the facility, with some success.
“We're getting a response, and I’d hoped we’d get a response, because I don't want to have to force anyone to come work in the facility,” he said. “But I don't have a problem with doing that.”
Greene said workers have been having to take on mandatory overtime to keep things running, often working two eight-hour shifts in a row, multiple times a week.
“I'm going to be actually going in tonight, at 3 a.m., to release somebody that’s being mandated,” Billman said. “Just so they can have a quality of life and they're not getting mandated back-to-back days working 16 hours.”
“It’s contributing to many factors of burnout, physical illness, mental illness. We’re seeing that,” Greene said.
