I. Call to Order
Meeting was called to order at 9:31am.
II. Roll Call
Chairman, Rick Velasquez, Rod Ahitow and George Hill by phone. Quorum present. Guests: Jason Steele, AOIC; Susan Witkin, U of I; Thomas Martins, Social Worker from Germany. Staff: Rob Vickery, Julie Stremlau, Jeff Bradley, Heidi Mueller and Ron Smith.
III. Approval of Minutes
Commissioner Ahitow motioned to approve the minutes from June 19th and September 5th of 2013. Commissioner Hill seconded. All in favor, minutes approved.
IV. Compliance Report
Rob Vickery gave the Compliance Report: Champaign, Vermillion and Winnebago still have violations. Kankakee highest this report. JISC had 41 violations. Ron Smith added that Cook is about the same with their violations. Champaign has reduced detaining status offenders. Chairman Timberlake and Rob Vickery worked with Champaign to reduce these numbers.
V. Site Reports/Comments
JDAI Coordinator, Jeff Bradley gave the site reports. He has been in contact with St Clair, Peoria and Bloomington. 1st circuit (Southwestern Illinois) will become a site but need one more judge. 1st circuit has just become a Redeploy site so they are a bit overwhelmed at this time. Casey reports seem to be moving along. The JDAI Coordinator can walk the sites thru the process. Everyone but Lake and DuPage are in the site and using the reporting template. St Clair meets monthly so more information is available from them than other sites. Reengagement has been completed and the goal now is recruitment. Champaign and Vermillion are targets, not looking good for Vermillion. Champaign maybe. There were 11 uninvolved sites, which are now doing JDAI work. Nine counties ready to go on board (1st Circuit). On the results reports, JDAI Coordinator has been working since June to prepare sites for reporting. We will achieve 100% compliance. The new process, web base reporting is easier. JDAI Coordinator explained we share information with result reports, JDAI snap shots and quarterly reports taken around to sites. The group discussed how to communicate what we are doing with the public. Recommendation to share data information with the full commission and convey our findings. Illinois was high in reduction numbers. A lot of work done before and to sustain the decrease in numbers. Will share this information with no money associated, just informational. Casey has model sites and with AECF grant money we send our site people to model sites to learn. This is highly organized. Cook County is a model site. AECF will line up with model sites that have the same issues as other counties. Rob Vickery and the JDAI Coordinator organized our sites and recommended the best places to visit. It was suggested that the JDAI Committee visit the model site at Cook.
VI. Update and Approve Workplan
IJJC Executive Director, Heidi Mueller went over the workplan. Effective Crisis Response has been met. Detention Admissions continue to be discussed. AOIC and IJJC continue to discuss this topic. Commissioner Velasquez will be in New York soon and will raise the issue of money needed for the VERA screening instrument. Jeff Bradley and Susan Witkin continue to work on the detention data. JDAI Coordinator will be in Franklin County to train on input data regarding warrants. They explained that detention centers do their own self assessments; they are not monitored by us. Jason Steel of AOIC is going to work with Jeff to see if they can improve conditions of confinement issues. JDAI Coordinator explained that the operations standards are going to depend on the legislature. The Juvenile Justice Initiative should help our cause. JDAI Coordinator will share information he has with Ron Smith, Heidi Mueller and Rob Vickery as they have been updating the standards.
VII. New Business
IJJC Executive Director talked with the Chicago police department and there is an issue with girls under 18 getting arrested for prostitution. The question is to utilize CCBYS for this? It was determined CCBYS could not handle the numbers. Will continue to discuss alternatives for this issue. IJJC Executive Director explained that CCBYS and the Juvenile Justice Leadership Council have a subcommittee. Basically, we need to utilize CCBYS more. Supreme Court justices, Director Bishop and many representatives are on this group. Will continue to look for ways to improve in this area. Chairman Velasquez thanked Rob Vickery, Susan Witkin and Jeff Bradley for all their hard work on the data report. Susan Witkin explained the Detention Self-Assessment. A line was added from January 1st to June 30th to view information. Plan to give this report to JJC on a quarterly basis and address issues. Also plan to share this information with AOIC. AOIC has this information but it is not formulated this way. She added we need to modify the report and a make a separate report as this one is very difficult to run.
VIII. Adjourn
Chairman Velasquez moved to adjourn, Commissioner Hill seconded. Meeting adjourned at 11:08am.