Dallas County Juvenile Department brings back previous leader as interim director
DALLAS - Dallas County has brought back the man who led the Dallas County Juvenile Department for 15 years to serve as interim director.
Mike Griffiths has returned to Dallas temporarily after the previous director, Darryl Beatty, was asked to resign last month by the chair of the Dallas County Juvenile Board Judge Cheryl Shannon.
"We need to maintain the agency and restore our credit, the confidence I had when I left in 2010," Griffiths told FOX 4. "I want to restore that confidence we had with the juvenile board, the commissioners court and, most importantly, the citizens of Dallas County."
Griffiths retired as the Dallas County juvenile director in 2010 after 15 years at the helm. When he took over the agency, it was in trouble. And that's where it is again.
Beatty was asked for his resignation last month after a state inspection found numerous issues to go with allegations of juveniles in detention being neglected or abused and, in some cases, in what amounts to solitary confinement beyond what the state allows.
Beatty denied mismanaging the center right up to his resignation.
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Executive Director Darryl Beatty held a press conference to defend his detention center. However, he refused to take any questions from the media and instead read a prepared statement. His attorney said that was his advice.
"The allegations being leveled that youth are being subjected to inhumane treatment are categorically false," he said in a July 3 interview.
Griffiths lives in Illinois but has come back to where his juvenile justice career started.
"We're going to take deliberate intentional steps to address the issues that have been highlighted," he said. "There's some things that have been noted by the Office of Inspector General and the standards and compliance division of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. We have to address those and address those immediately."
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price says Griffiths is the right choice.
"He can fix it. He has the historical knowledge, and he has the operational knowledge," Price said. "He has the respect. I mean, that's the thing about Mike Griffiths when he comes."
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"The juvenile board commissioners court have actually said, ‘Whatever you need, we'll provide.’ And so we need to identify those programs that are evidenced-based that have a match with the child's criminogenic needs," Griffiths said. "And I have not heard one policymaker say, ‘Mike, you can't have it.’ They've been very, very open in saying do what you need to do to make sure this program's running right, and that's what I'm going to do."
Griffiths says he hopes his stay is as short as possible, but he'll stay as long as necessary to turn the Dallas County juvenile system around.
This will be Griffith's second time serving as interim director of the Dallas County Juvenile Department.