3. Feasiblity study for juvenile detention/alternative holding facility

we had two Juvenile Detention Deputies working alone within the walls. They were not tied to the main jail through the camera system, the panic alarm system or the radio system. They were completely on their own if assaulted, or if the offenders attempted to overtake them to try to escape. This is what occurred with the murder suspect. To solve this issue, we moved Juvenile Detention out to the main jail campus and utilized one of the vacant pods. This immediately put the Corrections Division of the Sheriff's Office under the same roof as their commanders,peers, nursing and food service staff It also solved the safety concerns as they are now completely tied into the camera, communications and alarm systems, as well as they have immediate back up when they have a combative juvenile, which happens regularly. While this was a good"Band-Aid" for our short-term issues, it does not solve the problem long- term. We had to convert an adult pod for their use. This causes two issues, the first being it was designed to hold adult inmates, not juveniles. While we meet the minimum federal regulations for housing juveniles in this environment, the minimum cannot be, nor should it be the Cass County standard. The second, and larger, issue is we lost the 48 bed pod for adults. While our numbers are maintaining the ability for us to keep this a juvenile pod, the pod was designed for adults and should revert back to that use to accommodate our mandate to hold adults when the need arises. The juvenile facility should be designed to accommodate juvenile offenders and have the proper environment as mandated by federal regulations.