Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/01/2003 08:01 AM House STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 183-PERS BENEFITS FOR JUV INSTIT EMPLOYEES Number 0525 CHAIR WEYHRAUCH announced that the last order of business was HOUSE BILL NO. 183, "An Act relating to retirement contributions and benefits under the public employees' retirement system of certain juvenile detention employees and juvenile correctional institution employees." Number 0610 LINDA SYLVESTER, Staff to Representative Bruce Weyhrauch, Alaska State Legislature, introduced HB 183 on behalf of Representative Weyhrauch, sponsor. She noted that Alaska's current statutes provide that peace officers and fire fighters are entitled to a 20-year retirement. However, juvenile justice officers participate in a 30-year retirement system. The proposed legislation would add them to the statute governing the retirement system of peace officers and fire fighters. Ms. Sylvester said it is the belief of the sponsor and [those in the juvenile justice system] that this group was erroneously left out of the 20-year retirement system, and it is time to correct the inequity. MS. SYLVESTER said the Division of Juvenile Justice provides the people of the state with a wide range of restorative justice services in which juvenile offenders are held accountable. Furthermore, they work to repair the harm to those impacted by their crimes, and they provide offenders and their families with opportunities to develop new skills in order to be productive, contributing members of society. Ms. Sylvester noted that over the past several years, the legislature has funded construction and operation of new juvenile correctional facilities, in support of the public safety component of the division's restorative justice mission. However, buildings in and of themselves don't make a community safer; rather, it is the people who staff these facilities. She explained: This staff is charged with guarding, controlling, and confronting the most hardened juvenile offenders. The employees who work with juvenile delinquents face the same dangers and hazards as adult correctional officers. The job title of these people, ... "youth counselors," [belies] what actually goes on in their field. The public mistakenly believes that these people see kids in offices by appointment to counsel them. And nothing could be further from the truth. These workers provide 24-hour correctional care and custody related to the incarceration of people against their will. Number 0783 MS. SYLVESTER explained the duties of juvenile officers: Each day the youth counselors are involved in a chain of custody with other law enforcement personnel across the state. These kids are brought to the facilities in handcuffs in the back of police cars; they've been arrested for a crime. They arrive at the facilities in an angry, agitated, assaultive state. Oftentimes they are violent or intoxicated. The officers turning these youths over to the youth counselors are given ... body armor, guns, and chemical deterrents in order to deal with the offenders. Youth counselors are not given any of these things; they use their skill and their training and the relationships that they've formed with the kids, in order to conduct their duty safely. These counselors also exchange custody of minors between facilities. They accept custody from juvenile probation officers out in the field who are in a 20- year retirement system; oftentimes, they assist in those arrests, as juvenile probation officers request their assistance. Some of these [youth] offenders are charged with very serious and violent crimes, and they spend between 30 and ... 90 days inside the detention facilities before being transferred to an adult facility. In addition to custody transfer, some of the kids stay in the facilities until they're 20 years old. In that situation, the youth counselors are actually dealing with housing adults in their facilities. Also, as mandated by statute, youth counselors make independent arrests in the community in pursuit of the juveniles that have absconded from the facilities or from an escort to a medical or service transport. The duties of the youth counselor position requires solid training and excellent skill development in handling resistive clients. They have to have a peak mental and physical condition; ... these are ... qualities that tend to wane as we age. ... These are the exact reasons why the State of [Alaska] made a policy decision ... [regarding] the fire fighters and police officers to give them an opportunity to retire early, because these jobs are very dangerous and hazardous, and they have a short lifespan. And it's not the same type of a deal as sitting at a desk and working with your brain. Number 1000 GUY BELL, Director, Division of Retirement & Benefits, Department of Administration, testified that HB 183 would convert juvenile correctional officers from the "30-and-out" system to the "20-and-out" retirement system presently offered to police officers and fire fighters. It would grant that service retroactive to each individual's date of hire as a juvenile correctional officer, he noted, by allowing him/her to claim that service but not pay the full actuarial cost. He stated, "The difference in what they would have contributed ... as peace officers, versus other employees, is required of them, but that doesn't cover the full cost to the retirement system of making this conversion." MR. BELL turned to the fiscal note, which he described as self- explanatory. He said it adds an annual cost to the state of just over $1 million; the reason is included in the fiscal note. He explained, "The cost is spread across state employee salaries, so we don't show a dollar amount in the columns; we show an asterisk because it's a rate that each employer will need to pay on personal services." Number 1100 CHAIR WEYHRAUCH asked what other employees are now allowed [retirement after] 20 years. MR. BELL listed fire fighters, police officers, probation officers, and adult correctional officers. He said there was a short period when fisheries biologists and certain other Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) employees were in the 20-and- out system; however, they were removed in approximately 1983. Number 1158 REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ asked about other states. MR. BELL explained that each [state's] retirement system has its own criteria for improved retirement benefits or earlier retirement provisions, for example. He said some states do offer peace officers 20-year retirement, while some offer them 25-year retirements. In terms of the definition of "peace officer," Mr. Bell told Representative Berkowitz he'd have to do some analysis and get back to him regarding that. Number 1202 REPRESENTATIVE HOLM asked if the committee was considering the issue of a 20-year retirement at a 37.5-hour workweek or a 40- hour workweek. MR. BELL said he didn't know. Number 1275 BERNARD GATEWOOD, Alaska Juvenile Correctional Officers Association (AJCOA), who works as superintendent of the Fairbanks Youth Facility, Division of Juvenile Justice, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), listed his past positions as a Youth Counselor I and II, which he said are equivalent to DOC's Correctional Officer I and II, respectively, and as a Youth Counselor III at the Johnson Youth Center in Juneau and in a facility in Anchorage. He mentioned being a unit leader, equivalent to a lieutenant in DOC. MR. GATEWOOD said AJCOA is a group of dedicated and determined juvenile justice workers and supporters whose sole mission is to correct an inequity that has existed for many years: the omission of youth counselors, unit leaders, and superintendents of juvenile institutions from the 20-year peace officer retirement system. He elaborated: It is kind of incredible to me that we're not included in the 20-year system, because we have the law on our side through the statutes. The statutes clearly ... identify youth counselors as peace officers with respect to process, service, and making arrests ... [under] AS 47.12.270. And the facts are that youth counselors do the exact same things that correctional officers in DOC do. In the statutes, again, [AS] 18.65.290, it talks about the definition of a correctional officer being appointed by the commissioner of corrections, their duties being to provide custody, care, security, control, and discipline of persons charged or convicted of offenses against the state. And that's the same thing that youth counselors do, with a slight difference: juveniles are not convicted; they are "adjudicated," and it's the same thing as being convicted. And we are not appointed by the commissioner of corrections because we're in the Department of Health and Social Services. But you don't differentiate on the benefits between the commissioner of DOC and [DHSS]; they get the same benefits package. And that's what we're asking for. It seems as though we have been handcuffed - excuse the pun - by the term "youth counselor." [We] think that's a very misleading term; it doesn't really identify exactly what we do. We are, in fact, juvenile correctional officers. It seems as though sometimes we were left out of the family inheritance because we have a different name. There's a large disparity between workers of the same duties, just in different departments. We urge you to correct this inequity. Do the right thing: put us in the 20-year retirement system, just like probation officers, just like correctional officers, whose work is the same as ours. Number 1528 MR. HOLM thanked Mr. Gatewood for a prior tour he had given him through his facility. He asked Mr. Gatewood to compare the threat involved with youths versus adults. MR. GATEWOOD said the threat that youth counselors face on a daily basis is similar to what the adult correctional officers face and, in some cases, similar to what a police officer faces. For example, kids come to the facility in handcuffs, brought by police officers or state troopers. Sometimes they are revved up on drugs, very angry, and impulsive; oftentimes, they are suffering from mental illnesses and don't process information the way someone else might. For the most part, he said, they are unsure of what their future holds. MR. GATEWOOD told the committee that when a youth counselor goes to a youth's room in the morning, he/she doesn't know what exactly what [will happen]. He revealed that youth counselors have been struck, have been the subject of plots to escape, and have received bodily harm. He explained that the kids fashion knives out of any kind of sharp object. A day for a youth counselor can be quite dangerous, he concluded. MR. GATEWOOD said youth counselors who work on the unit with the kids work a 40-hour week; it's rare for them to have a [Saturday and Sunday] off. Shifts run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. He told the committee that the unit leaders and the superintendents work a 37.5-hour week. In response to a question by Representative Seaton, Mr. Gatewood clarified that those in the administrative portion work the 37.5-hour workweek, while those who work hands-on with the kids work 40-hour weeks. Number 1759 REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked how the job performed by the youth counselors compares with working at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API). MR. GATEWOOD answered that he doesn't know, but said a number of kids in the youth correctional facilities have to be transferred to API for various reasons. Reiterating that the juvenile justice system sees a number of kids who suffer from mental illnesses, he said, "Generally, we try to deal with them in the facilities, just through caring and concern and humane treatment. But sometimes their illnesses are just too great for us to deal with and we do have to transfer them to API for a brief respite/evaluation." Number 1815 REPRESENTATIVE LYNN recalled from being a [police officer] that juveniles were often far more dangerous than the same-sized adult. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH asked the committee to consider, as a policy, whether [youth correctional officers] should be included in the same category as fire fighters, probation officers, police officers, and adult correctional officers. He noted that there may be a fiscal issue to consider later. [HB 183 was held over.]
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