Star Tribune
MN kids with mental health needs cycle through juvenile justice system, often without options
“I will be blasted for this, but sometimes you are hoping the kid commits a crime because then there’s a place for them to go where you’re not worried where they’re going to sleep tonight,” said Benjamin Stromberg, an assistant St. Louis County attorney whose office handles child protection and juvenile delinquency cases. “Nobody wants these kids in detention — we all understand that. But sometimes it’s the one place where they are not going to be hurting anybody or hurting themselves.”
Residential facilities often have long waitlists and deny kids if they aren’t able to handle their specific issues, such as sexually aggressive behavior or substance use disorder.
Psychiatric residential treatment facilities, known as PRTFs, are one step below hospitalization and are supposed to take children with severe aggression, who present a safety risk to themselves or others. This year 281 kids were referred for placement in the four such facilities in the state, according to Department of Human Services (DHS) data, but only 66 got in.
While the facilities are licensed for 150 kids, they were only serving 85 as of June, according to the therapeutic provider association AspireMN. Staffing challenges keep them from taking more kids, executives at several PRTFs said, and while they want to accept as many children as possible, they have to ensure a kid is the right fit.
“Can they manage the [child’s] behavior with the culture, with staff and kids that they have?” said Larry Pajari, CEO of Northwood Children’s Services, which runs a PRTF. “Nobody wants to put other kids that may be vulnerable at risk either, so that’s the balancing act.”
Only 25 children from Hennepin County, the state’s most populous, have gotten into the psychiatric facilities since the first one opened in 2018, county children’s mental health area manager Neerja Singh testified in court, citing DHS data. Singh, a former deputy director of behavioral health at DHS, said children of color generally have not been able to get mental health services at the same rate as white youth.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask the taxpayers to fund the errors of the state,” he said, explaining why he didn’t support a different option before the board that involved turning to voters for more money next fall.
In recent surveys and community meetings about the proposed budget cuts, nearly 90% of respondents said they supported an option that involved delaying cuts and asking taxpayers for more money.
Board Co-Chair Kacy Deschene said none of the options before the board represented a “perfect solution for everybody.”
“We do know cuts are coming,” she said. “I feel like I’m repeating that as a broken record, but I want to make very clear that option three, as it’s before us, does not mean there are no future cuts.”
“I know the work has been stressful as you’ve considered the very passionate feedback from many voices,” McIntyre said, adding that he would support any option the board chose and all of the choices would require compromise. “While the challenges are real and the decisions difficult, we must move forward with a balanced budget that serves the best interests of our students and staff.”
Star Tribune
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah agree to a ceasefire to end nearly 14 months of fighting
Three people were killed in a separate strike in Beirut and three in a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media said another 10 people were killed in the eastern Baalbek province. Israel says it targets Hezbollah fighters and their infrastructure.
Israel also struck a building in Beirut’s bustling commercial district of Hamra for the first time, hitting a site that is around 400 meters (yards) from Lebanon’s Central Bank. There were no reports of casualties.
The Israeli military said it struck targets in Beirut and other areas linked to Hezbollah’s financial arm.
The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously have not been targeted. The warnings, coupled with fear that Israel was ratcheting up attacks before a ceasefire, sent residents fleeing. Traffic was gridlocked, and some cars had mattresses tied to them. Dozens of people, some wearing their pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, kept up its rocket fire, triggering air raid sirens across northern Israel.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a major presence, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where the U.N. peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, is headquartered.
A 46-year-old man has admitted to a fatal shooting in February at a north Minneapolis gas station in which hours passed before anyone called to help the victim.
Marvin Jewell Dancy, of Crystal, agreed in Hennepin County District Court to plead guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the killing of 21-year-old Wence Ledell Edwards, of Minneapolis on Feb. 5 in the alley behind the Handy Stop on the 2600 block of West Broadway.
The plea agreement calls for Dancy to be sentenced to a term of slightly more than 12¾ years. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Dancy can expect to serve the first 8¾ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Dancy’s criminal history spans many years and includes seven convictions for drug-related offenses, three for fleeing police and one each for robbery, burglary and assault.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police were alerted on Feb. 6 shortly after midnight to a body in the alley behind the gas station. Edwards had been shot multiple times.
Investigators determined Edwards had been shot about 2 hours earlier near the gasoline pumps. The charges did not offer a motive for the killing.
Gas station surveillance video showed Dancy firing numerous times at a fleeing Edwards, who had a gun in one hand and managed to get off one shot.
