TULSA, Okla. — Despite accusations of sexual abuse cases and squashing other cases, the Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Center had its license to operate extended.
This comes after a police raid of the juvenile center and the center getting roped into the same investigation as Oklahoma’s DHS which is accused of covering up cases of abuse.
FOX23 spoke with David Parker, the appointed manager of Tulsa County’s Juvenile Justice Center.
He said the audit is evidence that they are making the right changes since the fallout of a federal raid on the facility earlier this year.
However, they may not be off the hook yet.
“OJA has even said they’re very pleased with the progress we’ve been making. What we have is a system now that we can be graded on,” Parker said.
Parker calls this a win for the Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Center and a turning point for the facility plagued with scandal after the arrest of two former detention officers for multiple sexual abuse claims.
One of those charges came as recently as last week. Former detention officer Jonathan Hines was charged for the second time for sexual misconduct.
The Office of Juvenile Affairs completed its audit of the Tulsa’s juvenile facility.
The County Board of Commissioners announced the audit extends the facility’s operating license. However, it keeps the facility on probation through the end of the year.
“Now they’ve issued it for another 90 days so that we can make up for those things that we couldn’t come up with now that the county commissioners have taken over,” Parker said.
The OJA in their audit wrote, “The assessment indicated improvement in areas of compliance with contract mandates and state certification standards.”
The commission cited to get off probation the Juvenile Justice Center must improve its record-keeping and staffing.
However, not everyone agrees such as Seth McIntosh with the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
“We still feel like there’s kids in danger, we still feel like there’s abuse and neglect going on and we still are calling for a full shutdown,” McIntosh said.
The group just finished a large investigation into the facility and said the facility should close and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation should examine the claims.
“It’s still an understaffed facility and under-equipped. Until they can get proper staff, proper training in there, it just seems like it would be natural to shut everything down, get everyone trained, and then open back up,” McIntosh said.
“I would say the Appleseed group, they don’t really understand everything that we’re doing here. I would invite them just like anyone else to come in and see what we’re doing on a daily basis,” Parker said.
The OJA will do another audit in January.
Both the Juvenile Justice Center and the OJA are listed on the original investigative order sent by some state lawmakers to the OSBI.
However, some people are beginning to doubt if this investigation will even happen.
FOX23 reached out to the board of county commissioners on this investigative order. They said they would be willing to cooperate with any investigation by state agents with full transparency.