Counterpoint: We have everything we need but the resolve to act to help troubled young people

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I write to respond to Sunday series article about the mental health crisis in juvenile court. I spent half of my 22-year career as a judge in Juvenile Court and was presiding judge there for part of my tenure. I am now retired.

Placement of juveniles who have mental health needs is not a new issue (“Minnesota kids forced to cross the country for mental health help,” Nov. 3). In 2006, the court told the Hennepin County Board that if the county retained its Home School property instead of selling it, we would discontinue use of out-of-state placements for delinquent kids and work to develop local programs in which parents and families could visit and participate.

A court psychologist was on call to come to any courtroom for an initial assessment of the child’s history and needs. We had a multidisciplinary Children’s Mental Health Task Force that included community members and providers. David Hough, who was assistant county administrator at the time, supported that effort. Now the Hennepin County Home School has been sold. (It was on desirable land for golfing.) And many other secure facilities have closed largely because of the escalation in the mental health needs of kids in Juvenile Court.

The law requires that juvenile delinquency offenders be rehabilitated and returned to law-abiding behavior whenever possible. We currently have no facility to do that, and the money from the sale of the County Home School apparently was not earmarked for replacement treatment of juveniles.

Kids in the child protection system due to abuse, neglect or mental health by law cannot be held in detention facilities but must be placed in treatment facilities as necessary to treat emotional and psychological issues. Many of these mental health issues mean the children cannot safely be at home or in foster care without engaging in behavior harmful to themselves or others.

Many kids are involved in both delinquency and child protection systems (“crossover kids” — there was a specialized protocol to deal with this that also has been eliminated.)

The facilities that used to accommodate these kids have mostly stopped doing business because of the difficulty maintaining staff and other issues. But the need has only grown.

The time has come to build our own facility instead of relying on outside providers. There is space in the Juvenile Detention Center on upper floors. There were empty cottages at the County Home School that could have been used. There is empty downtown and suburban office space post-COVID. The Minnesota Department of Human Services has one of the largest budgets in the state. The state must make this a priority and pay a living wage to professionals trained to do this work. Psychologists with doctoral degrees are being turned out by the University of Minnesota, the University of St. Thomas and other institutions. We have the requisite staffing if we can pay those people. Many of the kids have serious trauma and mental health issues that need sophisticated treatment.

We have spent much energy on governor-appointed task forces to study these problems. It is time for a solution. Judge Todd Fellman, currently presiding judge in Hennepin County Juvenile Court, is uniquely qualified to address this, having spent nearly his entire career as a lawyer and a judge in the child protection system. Retired Judge Tanya Bransford addressed this lack of services while she was still on the bench in Juvenile Court. Minnesota Supreme Justice Anne McKeig knows this area well. Justice Kathleen Blatz continues to work on these issues. Many professionals who have worked in Juvenile Court have the skills and the will to see this through. I believe that if we get the right 15 people in a room, we can make this happen.

The time has come to stop examining the problem and to take action. The time has come to build a Hennepin County Juvenile Mental Health Treatment Center for delinquency and child protection kids: a state-of-the-art secure facility that can provide outpatient and residential services. It should be downtown or in a first-ring suburb to be accessible for family participation and visits. My guess is that other counties would be glad to collaborate, because they have the same needs but smaller populations.

We have the brain power, but we need the money to be routed to this pressing need. This is an issue that comes to the forefront periodically but only escalates when it is not concretely addressed with money and action. If we do not provide thorough sophisticated and consistent treatment to these kids while they are still kids; we will only pay for it later in suicide, gun violence, crime and dysfunction.

Kathryn Quaintance, of Golden Valley, is a retired judge.