Minnesota struggles to treat young, violent offenders who have nowhere to go

October 21

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A review of state data and recent court cases highlights the challenge of addressing juvenile crime. FOX 9 interviewed attorneys, police and parents of young offenders.

“When children with disabilities are being illegally jailed by the government, which is what happened in these cases, that is simply not how a civilized society can operate,” said Tracy Reid, a Hennepin County juvenile public defender, who challenged the illegal detentions in court.

The numbers

According to the most recent DHS data, 281 youth have been referred for care at a psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) this year. Only 66 of those kids were admitted for treatment.

There are only four licensed facilities in Minnesota. They are located in Cold Spring, St. Peter, East Bethel and Duluth.

DHS describes PRTF level care for youth under the age of 21 with “complex mental health conditions” as an inpatient level of care provided in a residential facility rather than a hospital, under the direction of a physician with various therapies and services seven days a week.

During courtroom hearings involving the illegally detained young offenders at the Hennepin Co. JDC, an official testified the county has referred “hundreds and hundreds” of troubled youth to the PRTF’s over the last six years, with only 25 kids ultimately gaining admission.

“It is really complicated,” said Kirsten Anderson, Executive Director of AspireMN, a statewide association of treatment facilities. “Every child has some complexities. And every service, every provider is seeking to meet the needs of those complexities.”

Anderson said some children need highly complex care that those treatment centers cannot meet.

Hennepin County Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde said “When a kid is labeled ‘violent’ in the juvenile system, the behavioral side will look at that and say, ‘I don’t know if we can take that kid. We do not have the wherewithal.’ They may be right.”

The backstory

FOX 9 has reported extensively on the crisis within the juvenile justice system with younger and younger offenders committing more and more violent crimes including shootings, carjackings and armed robberies. The issue has led to finger-pointing between the Minneapolis Police Department and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

Law enforcement has complained that they can have dozens of contacts with a juvenile offender as young as 10 years old, but they often return to the streets to commit more crimes.

State law mandates that children in juvenile delinquency proceedings must be released from a detention facility if they have been ruled incompetent, which is typically what happens when kids under the age of 13 are charged with a crime.

“I have worked in the area of youth justice for over 15 years and represented kids for a long time,” said Sarah Davis, Director of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Children & Families Division, “I never had a client under the age of 13 who was competent and who was found competent to move forward. And it is not a situation where it is optional.”

Recent court cases exposed the lack of options available for those kids. They can’t be held in juvenile detention but there are not enough beds available in treatment facilities.

Out of state

Earlier this year, a 12-year-old boy was illegally held in juvenile detention for weeks while the county searched for a facility. Other children have been sent out of state. FOX 9 spoke to one mother whose teen son was sent to Utah for treatment.

She described her son as one of the ‘Kia Boys,’ a nickname given to a group of teens who began stealing Kia automobiles picking up on a nationwide social media phenomenon during and immediately following the pandemic.

“I do not want to see my son, incarcerated or in any type of facility and stuff like that. But I wish there could have been more that could have been done to hold him accountable,” the mother, Cecelia Rice told FOX 9. “Because if he was an adult, it would have been different.”

She added, “And I tell him, I am like, ‘Next time either he can kill himself or he can kill somebody else.’ And either way is a bad situation for me because if he kills somebody else, now he is in jail for a long period of time. And if he kills himself and I lose a son. So, where is the help? Where do people step in and really try to help with these kids?”

What comes next?

County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne recently wrote an op-ed, explaining the urgent need for “residential placements with varying levels of security in the community that are resourced and staffed to accept and successfully treat our young people with complex needs.”

The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners established a regional workgroup to address the issue of care for children with “high behavioral health needs” who require treatment alternatives to criminal punishment. The workgroup is scheduled to release its preliminary findings with recommendations and legislative proposals in January with a final report due by April 1, 2025.

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