Requesting Space in La Crosse County JDF

Space in the detention facility cannot be held or reserved, unless the county authorizing the detention is willing to pay for the space regardless of the arrival of the juvenile. The juvenile must be in custody before space can be granted. The requesting worker may call to check on the availability of space in JDF, but the space is not guaranteed to be available unless the juvenile is currently in custody. Verbal confirmation of space availability must be made before presenting the child for detention. In other words, if the child shows up on our doorstep without our prior knowledge and consent, said child may be turned away.

Request for Space Form

This form MUST accompany every juvenile transported for detention.
The authorizing agent and billing address spaces must be completed.

Consent for Medical Treatment

Need not come with the juvenile, but should be received within 2 days of the date of detention.
To prevent your county from being billed for medication and medical services, please provide MA numbers or a copy of the MA Card when appropriate.
Unless the social worker is the parent/legal guardian or legal custodian of the juvenile, the social worker should not be signing the consent form.

Other Considerations

Please keep in mind that if an order or other legal paperwork comes through our fax machine without an accompanying phone call, it might as well be a blank sheet of paper. In other words, we must have verbal contact in order to process any request regarding a juvenile.

Additionally, if the juvenile arrives for detention before we receive legal paperwork authorizing the detention, we will have to require that the transporting agent remain at the facility in charge of the juvenile until appropriate paperwork is obtained.

Names and Phone Numbers to Remember

Facility Superintendent
David Steinberg
ph.(608) 785-5542

Facility Supervisors
Jill Dunne
Matt Kuehl
Dean Ott

Jail Inspector
Scott Morris
Phone: (715) 836-5825
Fax: (715) 836-2331

Secure Unit (608) 785-6407

La Crosse County Juvenile Detention Facility Control Booth (608) 785-6405

Legal paperwork and detentions

Legal paperwork is essential to the proper detention of any juvenile within this facility. La Crosse County cannot assume the liability for a child’s welfare without the presence of legal paperwork addressing detention.

JD-1710 (Temporary Physical Custody Request, TPC)

Top half to be filled out by arresting or transporting officer and is required at time of detention if no other legal paperwork justifying the hold is present.
Bottom half to be filled out by intake worker at time of face-to-face.
Top half should contain some explanation of reason for hold – what the new charge is.
This constitutes enough paperwork to hold a juvenile for the length of the business day following the day of detention. Sometime during that day, the juvenile must be released or other paperwork must be completed in order to continue the juvenile’s placement in detention. Other paperwork could consist of any of the following types.

72 hour hold

Can be the initial paperwork used to detain a juvenile, or can be imposed on a juvenile previously detained by another means.
All sections must be filled in
- SW must indicate investigation or consequence in the box at the top of the sheet.
- Section 1 – must indicate delinquent or JIPS and give reason adjudicated (not reason for holding today).
- Section 2 – must check one or both boxes.
- Section 3 – must check 1 box.
- Section 4 – will only be filled out if juvenile is detained as a consequence, in which case the statement form must accompany it.
- Section 5 – must check 1 box. (Note: If the box for JIPS is marked in section 1, the juvenile cannot be put in secure.)
- Section 6 – both lines must be completed.
- Section 7 – date and time must be filled in (we cannot fill these in for the workers).
72 hour holds are valid for exactly 72 hours from the time and date in section 7, including holiday and weekend hours. Juveniles may not remain in detention past this time.
If, at the expiration of one of these types of holds, the juvenile is still in custody, we may have to immediately release the child to him or herself.

Sanction order and imposed sanctions

When imposing stayed days, worker must have a copy of the order imposing the days, and must put, in writing, the number of days to be imposed.
End of sanctions is specific as to date but not time – a sanction day is not necessarily 24 hours.
Make sure we release to the appropriate party if specified in the order, and clarify with Human Services if a release agent is not specified.
The placing agency determines the count of the sanction days; the detention facility will abide by that determination, rather than making our own count of the days.

Court Order (incl. Disposition Orders)

May pertain to a current offense for which the juvenile was taken to court prior to detention or could be a disposition order on a past offense.
Differ in appearance from county to county, and may be a single sheet containing minimal information (name, date of birth, detention placement, and judge’s signature) or huge booklets containing the entire criminal, social, family and psychological history of the juvenile.
Before accepting an order as valid, check to see that it was signed by a judge and that it contains, somewhere, an order for detention, current or stayed.
Could be used to continue a 72 hour hold past its expiration.
Juveniles returning from court, who were previously held on a court order, need not be accompanied by a new court order, unless the judge imposes new conditions on the detention (evaluation, home visits, etc.) – the hold on the previous court order is continued.

Capias

Alone is not valid means of detaining a juvenile.
Issued as orders to law enforcement to take into custody, but a detention placement must be authorized by delinquency intake before admitting the juvenile to the facility, and a temporary physical custody request must be present.
If the judge issuing the capias specifically addresses detention placement in the capias, then that document alone, without a TPC, is enough to detain the juvenile.

Phone Court

With the convenience it provides, phone court is becoming a very popular alternative to transporting juveniles to and from court. If you are planning on using the phone court option, please follow these steps in setting up your hearing with La Crosse JDF:

Once you have a hearing planned, please call the Control Booth and notify them as to time and date.
When court is in session, please call the Control Booth (not the unit the child is housed in). The Control Booth will transfer your call once the juvenile is in place by a semi-private phone line.
At the conclusion of the hearing, you must call the Control Booth to notify JDF staff of the outcome of the hearing. We cannot rely on the child’s summation of the hearing process. At this time you shall also fax any court orders or documentation required if the child is to remain in detention, or call with transport arrangements if the child is being released.

Visiting and Phone Calls

Juveniles may receive non-professional phone calls or visitors from 1pm – 4 pm and 6pm – 8pm daily.
Juveniles may call out during any scheduled free time, which may not coincide with these hours.
Professionals may call in or visit daily from 8:30am – 12:00pm and 1:00pm – 5:00pm.
Family visitors may include parents, step-parents, foster parents, grandparents and siblings. Visitors should be prepared to produce I.D. and may be subject to search by metal detector.
Visitors arriving during business hours should enter through the main entrance of the building. Visitors arriving after 5pm daily or on weekends or holidays must use the north entry to the secure elevator.

Services

At this time, La Crosse County Juvenile Detention Facility does not routinely conduct drug screenings, but may provide this service at a later date.
Psychological evaluations are not routinely performed. However, any county agent interested in having such evaluation may contact the Superintendent for instruction on how to proceed.
Reality Check Program – any county social worker interested in using the Reality Check program must contact the Superintendent for instruction and should see the referral form herein.