Tarrant meeting ends as judges walk before public comments on juvenile offender program

Employees and residents were set to speak about Youth Advocate Programs Inc. during Wednesday’s Tarrant County Juvenile Board meeting, but judges walked out during the meeting, forcing it to end because of a lack of a quorum.

The Juvenile Board voted July 17 to not renew four contracts with Youth Advocate Programs and Sante Fe Youth Services, a division of Youth Advocate Programs. The nonpartisan group, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, provides counseling, mentors and community service in an effort to reduce repeat youth offenders.

Board members at the time questioned language on Youth Advocate Programs’ website, such as “policy and advocacy,” “diversity initiatives,” and “systemic racism.”

Kimberly Brandon, the vice president of Youth Advocate Programs Inc. West Region, had just begun her speech Wednesday when the meeting abruptly ended. She was stunned she wasn’t able to continue her comments.

Judge routinely leave during Juvenile Board meetings.

Brandon said after the meeting she had wanted to convey that the program provides safe and effective community-based services as an alternative to incarceration and to clarify how D.E.I. initiatives were never mentioned on the Youth Advocate Program’s website.

She says Youth Advocate Programs will continue to be relentless in reinstating their contract.

“We’re going to continue to fight the good fight in the most appropriate way, because we care about youth and families,” Brandon said. “I don’t know if I can say it any better, we care about our youth and families, we want them to do well, we want services to be provided and we want to be able to partner with other organizations to continue to do this work.”

Thomas Foster, a retired Kansas district court judge and board member of Youth Advocate Programs, was also prepared to participate in public comments.

Foster and Kansas Juvenile Services had used group homes for youth offenders but learned through studies and experts there was a high recidivism among those who stay in them. Foster learned about Youth Advocate Programs Inc. and visited Fort Worth in 2016. He brought the program to Kansas in 2018 and closed the group homes.

Kansas officials are still gathering data but Foster wanted to share at the meeting how great the program has been in helping the community, increasing public safety and helping to reduce public costs.

“There’s so many kids in crisis that it’s hard for them to take the first step or the second step and the YAP (Youth Advocate Programs) teaches them and it also addresses family issues,” Foster said.

Nearly 70% of children under supervision in Tarrant County Juvenile Services receive services from Youth Advocate Programs Inc., according to Bennie Medlin, the department’s director and chief juvenile probation officer.

Between October 2022 to June 2024, 90% of participants Youth Advocate Programs services were not adjudicated or convicted of a new charge while enrolled and 100% stayed enrolled in school, graduated, or earned a GED, according to Youth Advocate Programs.

Services from Youth Advocate Programs and Sante Fe Youth cost $311 and $440 weekly for each youth served, compared to a weekly detention cost of $2,207, according to Youth Advocate Programs.