Juvenile detention home reports hires, no OJA findings; grievances drop to six this year

Parker provided the board with an update on the Tulsa County juvenile detention home, describing recent hiring, oversight, and programming changes and asking if commissioners had questions. Parker said the facility conducted 11 interviews and hired four people, and that the Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) conducted an audit that, verbally, returned no findings though a written report was still pending.

On grievances, Parker reported historical and recent numbers: "In 2004, when, the commissioners took over the juvenile home, there was 221 grievances reported that year... to date this year, there's only 6." He also described a tour of COPES (community outreach psychiatric emergency services) and expanded use of contracted family-and-children-services staff and de-escalation training to improve mental-health support for juveniles. Parker said the county has been asked to participate in possible rewriting of juvenile administrative code 377; no final revisions were yet available.

The board moved to accept and file the juvenile detention home update by unanimous vote. The presentation emphasized staffing gains, positive audit feedback (verbal), reduced grievance counts, and enhanced mental-health linkages.