Detention Center is Way Station for Troubled Teens
The Stoddard County center, which opened in the Bloomfield Justice Building in 2001, is a regional facility serving five counties and "anyone else that needs us," says Dennis Fowler.
The Stoddard County facility can house up to 25 juveniles, though it seldom nears capacity. The center typically serves those between the ages of 14 and 16.
However, "we've had some fairly young ones -- as young as 11 or 12 -- who were acting out very severely," says Fowler, who served as a sheriff's deputy and with the SEMO Drug Task Force before accepting the position at the detention center. "We let them stay a few hours or maybe even overnight until we can get them into a hospital facility."
The misbehavior and mistakes that bring detainees to the center run the gamut on the severity scale, from truancy to petty theft -- and even murder. Some teens are passing through with emotional issues and are sent to the center to be evaluated.
After a lifetime in law enforcement, Fowler has observed the critical role one's home environment plays in the trajectory of their life.
"It's rare that a child comes through here that I can't trace a cause and effect back to the home environment -- or certainly to associations. If you're running with a peer group that's in trouble, sooner or later, you're going to get caught up in it, too," says Fowler. "And if parents aren't paying attention to who their children are running with, it's just a matter of time."
Much like a way station, the detention center is a brief stopover in these troubled young lives, with stays typically lasting less than a month. Detainees are not sentenced to the detention center as a punitive measure; rather, it serves as a holding facility until some determination is made as to where they belong. Outcomes can range from home supervision to commitment to a state juvenile facility.
"We hold juveniles at the direction of the juvenile courts," says Fowler. "Our ultimate goal is to keep them safe until they can make their court appearances and await whatever determination is made by the court."
Their futures may be on hold during their brief time at the Stoddard County Regional Detention Center, but their education is not.
"We have a school facility on site so we keep some continuity with their education, rather than just have this lapse with their education while they're here in detention," says Fowler.