The president of a program that works with children in the juvenile justice system to prevent recidivism and keep children out of the juvenile detention center worries that Tarrant County’s decision to end contracts with his company will result in higher crime, more probation violations and more kids in jail.
“This is going to lead to a huge void in Tarrant County, and the young people and the families that we serve are going to suffer as a result,” Gary Ivory, president and CEO of Youth Advocate Programs Inc., told the Star Telegram.
The Tarrant County Juvenile Board voted July 17 to not renew its contracts with Youth Advocate Programs over concerns that the nonprofit’s website mentions issues such as “diversity initiatives” and “systemic racism.”
Ivory said he was devastated by the vote. He said he has been in conversation with Judge Tim O’Hare and remains hopeful the contracts will be renewed because Youth Advocate Programs provides support, mentors, and results other programs don’t yield.
Youth Advocate Programs is an advocate for safe and effective alternatives to youth incarceration and other forms of out-of-home placement, Ivory said. The nonpartisan group, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, provides counseling, mentors and community service opportunities in an effort to reduce repeat offenders. The company has worked with the county since 1992.
In voting to end its relationship with the program, county officials also raised questions about whether Youth Advocate Programs has lobbyists to influence public policy. Ivory said the program does use lobbyists related to its interests in child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health and other matters, but no Tarrant County contract money pays for that work. Payment to lobbyists is made from philanthropic donations, he said.
Referrals by probation officers, judges
Participants in the Tarrant County program are referred by probation officers or district court judges who handle child welfare and juvenile delinquency cases. The children spend at least seven hours a week in the program, which runs from two to four months.
Youth Advocate Programs identifies the needs of each child and their family and comes up with an individualized plan, Ivory said. Advocates are hired and trained to help carry out that plans. Advocates provide educational, economic, and emotional tools and ensure any court order or probation conditions are addressed so the children are safe and achieve positive outcomes, he said.
Sante Fe Youth Services is a a division of Youth Advocate Programs Inc . and provides evidence-based prevention, intervention and counseling services designed specifically for the social and emotional development of adolescents.
The Tarrant County Juvenile Board ended four contracts for a variety of services with Youth Advocate Programs. Three expire on Aug. 31 and one expires on Sept. 30. The end of the contracts will affect 30 to 40 jobs, Ivory said.
Nearly 70% of children under supervision in Tarrant County Juvenile Services receive services from Youth Advocate Programs, according to Bennie Medlin, the department’s director and chief juvenile probation officer.
According to Youth Advocate Programs, between October 2022 to June 2024 participants were 79 percent male and 21 percent female. Eighty-six percent of those served were children of color.
The decision will end services for 53 Youth Advocate Programs participants and 22 Santa Fe Youth Services participants currently in the programs, according to Youth Advocate Programs. The contracts provide for services for up to 423 youths per year.
Youth Advocate Programs services and Sante Fe Youth Services cost taxpayers $311 and $440 weekly, respectively, for each youth served, compared to a weekly detention cost of $2,207, according to Youth Advocate Programs.
Success at keeping kids in school and out of trouble
Between October 2022 to June 2024, 90 percent of participants Youth Advocate Programs services were not adjudicated or convicted of a new charge while enrolled and 100 percent stayed enrolled in school, graduated, or earned a GED, according to Youth Advocate Programs. Data for youth offenders not in the program was not readily available.
Inflation and job market pressures in recent years have meant that the money paid to Youth Advocate Programs by Tarrant County has not covered its costs, according to the organization. Youth Advocate Programs subsidized the four contracts with a total of $113,192 in donor funding in the last 11 month of this fiscal year, and in the previous fiscal year subsidized the four Tarrant County contracts with more than $192,000.
Carey Cockerell, the former director of juvenile services for Tarrant County for 20 years, brought Youth Advocate Programs to the county because juvenile services wanted a successful program that worked with the youth and made them and their community more successful.
During the early ‘90s, the county was receiving a record number of referrals to the department by law enforcement, and there was a high juvenile incarceration rate across the state, according to Cockerell. In the program’s first year Youth Advocate Programs cut the commitment rate of youth to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department or the state by 50 percent, Cockerell said.
The program also had an economic impact to the community as it hired advocates who lived in the same communities as the participants, according to Cockerell. It provided more intensive contact with youth offenders than juvenile probation could have done, Cockerell said.
“I’m optimistic that maybe the program will continue,” Cockerell told the Star Telegram. “If it doesn’t continue, then I’m very, very disappointed in the state of juvenile services here in Tarrant County.”
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