CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A passionate debate broke out during a Montgomery County town hall meeting this week to discuss the idea of bringing a juvenile resource center to Clarksville.

County residents were given the chance to speak on how they feel about the idea following the presentation on the proposed center. Some agreed with the need of a juvenile resource center, while others did not.

When the meeting began, Commissioner David Shelton said there is a serious problem with services available for youth. Shelton said that it’s an issue that demands, not more silence, but engagement and active listening.

Shelton acknowledged that for some individuals, juvenile resource centers bring back feelings of pain, marginalization and yet another way to put families behind bars.

“When I say ‘resource center,’ there’s a lot of us in this room, the word they’re hearing in their mind is ‘jail,'” said Shelton. “We have to address that, and we have to be real about that. And there’s a good reason for all of this. We know for a fact today, in our adult jail population, it is more than 50% Black.

“We know that every time we look into the population of prisons and jails across the country, that overrepresentation is a real thing. That’s one reason so many of us don’t have trust in the very system that governs us. That’s reality. Here we are today talking about detention for juveniles – minors – their children.

“Is it going to be more the same; will we see more people have their lives disrupted? Or are we going to finally start to listen? I’ve seen the statistics; I’ve seen the studies; I’ve seen the population numbers, and time and time again we know that overrepresentation is there. And because of it, there’s genuine worry that if we build a resource center, that we’re just going to want to fill it. These are all completely valid concerns, and we’re going to talk about it. All of these concerns, I’m raising them because I have the same questions,” Shelton said.

Juvenile court system challenges

Shelton said the message behind the juvenile resource center is hope: hope of finding ways to help kids who have made poor choices learn from their mistakes.

He also said the last thing the juvenile court system wants to do is send children to a jail type of environment.

Shelton said that when a juvenile has contact with law enforcement, the first step is to determine if a crime has been committed. If so, the minor receives a juvenile citation, which will be followed up with a court appearance. Shelton said this is what happens more often than not.

During their appearance in court, the judge will decide whether the minor is detained based off the charges.

However, Montgomery County doesn’t have a detention center. So, the juvenile is taken into custody until court officials reach out to surrounding counties as they try to secure a detention bed for the individual.

The presentation said that beds are frequently unavailable, so those with elevated charges might sleep on the floor of the Clarksville Police station, or they are sent home.

66% of youth detainees Black or mixed race

The presentation included data on the number of new juvenile cases per year, which includes incidents such as traffic violations.

There were 3,592 new juvenile cases during 2023, which was a 542 decrease from the previous year. However, the number of juveniles that were detained during 2022 and 2023 remained around 3%.

The county also collected data that measured the number of unruly and delinquent minors, those who were detained and their demographics.

When looking at the numbers, 96 of the 146 juveniles detained were Black or mixed, which comes out to around 66%.

How a resource center would work

The juvenile court office consists of four judges and 17 staff members. Those four judges remain on call for warrants 24/7. Meanwhile, office staff works around 16 to 18 hours per day.

If the county were to approve a juvenile resource center, part of the budget would go toward additional staffing, along with offices in the center.

Additional features of the resource center would include courtrooms, classrooms and a detention space. Then, counselors and mental health experts would be on site to work with the juveniles in the facility.

These resources would add to existing juvenile resources such as the 20/10 mentoring program at Austin Peay State University, the JET Program and Clarity Workshop. The county provided the following link to see the full list of existing resources.

Before a juvenile resource center can be constructed, the county must find land and have a design developed.

Commissioner Lisa Prichard spoke to everyone about her life experiences and why Montgomery County needs a juvenile resource center.

Prichard played a key part in the endorsement of a feasibility study on whether the county needs such a facility. The study concluded that to keep up with rapid growth, Montgomery County does need a juvenile resource center.

Concerns about systemic racism

Jimmie Garland, who is a member of the CMCSS School Board and president of the local NAACP, said he heard two presentations during the meeting. The first, being for a juvenile resource center, and the second being for a juvenile detention center. He asked which is it.

“I can support a resource center being here for our children because it’s here to help them do better,” Garland said. “The detention center I cannot support.”

Charles Uffelman, who serves as the chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, said guys like him, that grew up on a 200-acre cattle farm in Cunningham, never faced the same challenges as the Black community.

“It’s clear in your data that when Black people make up a third of this county, and two-thirds of our detentions, there’s a bigger problem than juvenile crime,” Uffelman said. “If we’re going to put all the king’s horses and men to fix juvenile crime, and ask for $50 million to figure out where to lock our kids up; how are you all going to address systemic racism?

“How many millions will you ask for to address systemic racism, policing and housing? Because a white man from Cunningham doesn’t face the same threat of detention as the kids we’re talking about.”

Other questions asked during the Q&A included:

  • What other alternatives can be considered?
  • Why do we want to jail children?
  • What’s the difference between a resource center and detention center?

State push for harsher sentences

Four county judges came forward to help address the questions. Judge Sharon Massey Grimes said some of the concerns brought forward do not “sit in their lap.”

Grimes said since they are the judiciary branch, they are there to carry out the laws created between the legislative body and the executive branch. She addressed the question of, “Why do we want to jail children?”

“There is a move afoot, that those 14- to 17-year-olds who commit upper-level crimes, carjackings, murder and aggravated rape – there is a move afoot by the governor, by the legislature, to send those children straight to jail, which wouldn’t come through us. Rather, they’d let jailing courts of adults decide whether or not they should come back and be treated as juveniles. We do not agree with that.

“Because our goal is rehabilitation, every day. We have court every day of the week, so I invite every single person in this room to come and watch what we do. Watch us do everything in our power before we detain someone.”

Judge Reid Poland reiterated the point as the meeting carried on.

It will be a ‘resource center’

Judge Ken Goble Jr. said a certain number of kids will be detained based on crime and nothing more.

“When someone calls me in the middle of the night, sometimes they don’t even tell me their name; they certainly don’t tell me their race, or what side of the tracks they grew up on,” Goble said. “All they tell me is what the allegations are and what kind of history they have. And then I have to make a determination based on that.

“If I chose to detain, then all the folks sitting here (in reference to juvenile court system staff), have to start getting on the phone finding the bed. The closest bed we have is an hour away. When they go to those centers, they don’t get the resources they need. So, kids are going to be detained one way or another. It’s better for one to be here where their parents can actually visit them.

“If we have resources in place, such as counseling and education; all of these things are not getting into facilities around the state. Then we get an opportunity to intervene before it’s too late. Our goal is, 100%, rehabilitation. Sometimes the harsh reality is that includes detaining children temporarily,” Goble said.

He clarified that it would be a resource center where licensed professionals will be on site. Goble said they are doing the very best they can and that they care about everything, including race, gender, etc. What they are looking to do with the juvenile resource center is to provide the same services to everyone in the system.

Goble complimented everyone in attendance for the passion they brought into the town hall meeting. He said it’s time to come together and do what’s best for the kids in the system.

When the meeting adjourned, leaders and community members came together to continue the conversation.

‘We have to listen’

“After hearing all of the concerns, and hearing from the judges responding to those concerns; I feel like we have a lot of listening to do,” Shelton told Clarksville Now after the meeting. “This is a start, and the problem is I don’t think we are listening to each other enough. From the government to the people that we govern. We are a government of the people, for the people, by the people. We have to listen.

“We have to be able to listen to the minorities who say, ‘There’s too many people like us that are in the prison and jail system.’ That is a problem, and until we are willing to address that directly, or even acknowledge it, I don’t think we’re going to make any headway.

“Part of what we wanted to do tonight was to acknowledge these problems and realize we have to discuss them. We have to talk about systemic racism, it’s not an imaginary thing. Because when I have so many people that don’t look like me, but tell me there’s a problem, my job is to listen,” Shelton said.