CLEVELAND — Chants of "understaffed" and "overworked" filled the air Monday outside Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court as the union representing juvenile detention officers warned a staffing shortage is putting safety at risk.
"Youth here have been attacking youth, youth here have been attacking officers," said Colin Sikon, Field Representative for Laborers 860, the union representing nearly 200 juvenile court workers. "When they're low-staffed, they're making it dangerous for the youth inside as well as our officers."
Sikon said juvenile court administrators have struggled to hire new officers and retain the ones they have. He said positions are frequently covered using mandatory overtime for officers.
"In one case, I had one of my staff in a two-week period work 80 hours of straight time and 96 hours of overtime," Sikon said. "They can't go on like this."
It's the latest concern for the juvenile detention center during a rocky two year stretch. Teens rioted inside the center in January 2018. Then, last year, the man brought in to run juvenile detention was fired after eight months on the job. His replacement walked out after just five hours.
Caught in the middle are the roughly 100 teens housed in juvenile detention at a time.
"This is a cry for help," said Cassandra McDonald, President of the justice reform advocacy group LAWRS Foundation. "This is not to badger, but this is a call for help and I hope that individuals don't personalize this. We just want relief and we need to help each other."
A spokeswoman for Cuyahoaga County's Juvenile Court did not respond to questions about staffing or the number of open positions inside the detention center Monday. Instead, she sent three pages summarizing the court's offer to the union during negotiations.
To read the three-page summary, click here.
"The court recognizes workers’ rights and their right to collectively bargain," the court said in a statement. "Further, the court believes that our proposed economic package is fair to our employees and is responsible to the taxpayers of Cuyahoga County who ultimately bear the costs. We remain committed to negotiating in good faith and agreeing to a contract with the Probation, Clerks, Transportation and Detention Services units that are fair, fiscally responsible and are in compliance with all State, Federal and applicable professional standards."
But Sikon denied that Monday's protest was a bargaining stunt.
"These issues are real," he said. "This is not just a ploy, I don't believe. They're bad. Very bad."
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