JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colorado — The Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center is working to implement changes in response to a report by a national nonprofit that outlined 55 recommendations to improve the facility, which made headlines last year for a riot as well as multiple escapes.
The report, which was completed in July 2019 by the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators (CJJA), describes problems with drugs, violence and staff turnover in the Golden youth correctional facility. It was publicly released by the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) on Friday, in addition to a second document outlining the center’s planned responses to the nonprofit’s recommendations.
One of those changes was announced in late January, when the CDHS said it would separate the inmates that were being housed in one facility at Lookout Mountain into four different buildings that are already on the campus.
In addition, the CDHS said it planned to reduce the overall population at the Lookout Mountain facility. When four inmates escaped between April and June of last year, it housed 150 inmates. There was also a riot during that same time period that injured 10 staff members.
The campus housed 65 inmates when the CJJA conducted its survey a few months later, and the goal is for each of the four buildings to house between 12-36 youth, with a maximum of 112 individuals living at Lookout Mountain at any given time.
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To address the facility’s admitted drug problem, Lookout Mountain will require possessions be in clear bags when they enter the facility. It also contracted a drug dog in October 2019.
The CJJA’s report also flagged what it said was a 42% staff turnover rate at Lookout Mountain, something the CDHS said it planned to improve with additional training and more presence by executive staff at the facility.
While the CJJA recommended Lookout Mountain implementing a “Diana Screen” across the division, the Division of Youth Services (DYS) said it would not be “at this time.” A Diana Screen probes the vulnerability of new hires to cross boundaries and potentially sexually victimize youth.
Instead of a Diana Screen, the DYS said has instead submitted a budget request to implement a Corrections Selection Inventory for all prospective hires that have contact with youth.
Last year, a staff member at the Lookout Mountain center pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
In its response to the CJJA report, the CDHS said the previous director of the Lookout Mountain center resigned in April 2019 amid upheaval at the facility, and that multiple other staff members also left on their own or had been discharged.
The CDHS also said Lookout Mountain would also adjust its disciplinary process after the CJJA report said “due process is lacking or non-exist” within the facility.
Other changes mentioned as the result of the report include remodels of rooms housing inmates to make them homier, increased vocational training for youth, and a better collection of data surrounding the use of isolation.
Despite the long list of recommendations, CJJA concluded its report by saying there was hope for the facility.
"It is important to note that the current situation and level of violence at LMYSC can be corrected," the report reads.
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