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Two officials at facility for youth dismissed
RODNEY BOWERS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

BRYANT -- Russell Rigsby, the recently appointed director of the Department of Human Services' Youth Services Division, has dismissed two top officials as part of his management overhaul plan, department spokesman Joe Quinn said Friday.
Herman Hutton, assistant facility director at the Alexander Youth Services Center, and Gina Jackson, assistant director of operations for the division, were dismissed Thursday, Quinn said. Both employees have accumulated leave and will remain on the payroll until March 18, he said.
Hutton held his position since September, and Jackson was hired in August.
Quinn called the dismissals "a normal evolution."
"It's no reflection of the efforts of Herman or Gina," he said. "Both have made major contributions at DYS. ... We think Alexander is running very well these days, and great strides have been made out there."
However, "Russell Rigsby continues to take steps to improve operations at DYS" and part of that involves "hiring people he is comfortable with," Quinn said.
Neither Hutton nor Jackson could be reached for comment Friday.
Quinn said Hutton was "an emergency six-month hire" who was brought in "to help us stabilize the situation" at the youthful offender facility near Bryant. Jackson, he said, was "a grade 99 DHS employee, which means she serves at the pleasure of the governor and the DYS director."
In June, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published a series of articles detailing allegations of abuse and mismanagement at some of the division's facilities, which resulted in a shake-up within the Youth Services Division.
In November, Jackson testified before the Senate Interim Committee on Children and Youth and the House Interim Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, telling lawmakers that "we feel like they [youths in the state's care] are safer, better cared-for and more protected now than they have been in a long time."
After holding seven days of hearings, the committees issued a 10-page report which stated that Gov. Mike Huckabee and five employees in the governor's office and the Department of Human Services did not "take affirmative action to remedy the abuse" of children in state custody.
The Youth Services Division houses about 275 delinquents at the Alexander Youth Services Center and three wilderness camps. It also operated an observation and assessment center in North Little Rock until last year when it was combined with the Alexander center.
Recently, the Alexander center has reported some escapes, an attack on a guard and incidents of employees sleeping on the job.
Rigsby, formerly of Jonesboro, was appointed director of the Youth Services Division on Jan. 13. He replaced Paul Doramus of Benton, who resigned the day the legislative committees' report was released, citing job stress.
Before he resigned, Doramus had suggested privatizing some of the division's functions.
Quinn said the department is actively pursuing that possibility, noting that requests for proposals will be sent out "probably at the end of the month" to national companies and others interested in taking over the operation of the facilities.
Earlier this year, Rigsby told a legislative panel that he is "strongly looking at privatization," especially at the Alexander Youth Services Center.
"That's one of the alternatives we are looking at, but that's not our firm direction," he told members of the House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs Committee.
The division already has privatized its educational process. Rivendell Management Co. has a contract with the division for $827,475 to provide regular, special and vocational education to youths at the Alexander center.
Rivendell provides 21 instructors, including seven special education teachers, who provide classes six hours a day, five days a week at the center. The contract became effective Dec. 1, 1998.
Before the Rivendell contract, students attended classes five days a week for two to three hours a day.
Kurt Knickrehm, director of the Department of Human Services, has said he has talked with representatives of two companies about the possible takeover of operations. They are Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of West Palm Beach, Fla., which operates two private prisons in Newport; and Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn., another company that operates private prisons.

This article was published on Saturday, March 6, 1999

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