The Center for Improving Youth Justice (CIYJ) is very pleased to announce Clark County Juvenile Detention in Las Vegas has been selected as one of the finalists for the 2025 Barbara Allen-Hagen Award in the detention category.
Clark County Juvenile Detention, is located in Las Vegas, at the southern end of Nevada. It has an average daily population of 150 young people ages 8-23-years old who stay an average of 32 days. While improving connectedness with families has been an ongoing priority, the pandemic threatened the efforts and created a need for something new.
The team at Clark County wanted to increase the in-person and virtual phone visits with families as the pandemic restrictions lifted believing that would also reduce the uses and duration of isolation/room confinement. Through surveys of families, communications with staff, changes in policy and new programming, the percentage of young people who received a visit from family while at Clark County Juvenile Detention has been steadily increasing over the last five years and more than doubled since April 2020. During the same time the incidents of isolation have dropped by almost half and the duration falls below the CIYJ field average.
The Clark County Juvenile Detention team ensured all voices were heard as it developed its Facility Improvement Plan (FIP) to increase family contact. The team petitioned for additional computers and a dedicated space on each unit to improve their capacity for virtual visitation and took the extra steps to reach out to families to teach them how to use the online platform.
The infrastructure also allows various providers to conduct assessments, counseling, restorations and other appointments with young people. To support the additional offerings, they have moved to a more centralized scheduling system.
Congratulations to the team at Clark County Juvenile Detention: Facility Administrator Damian Storla, Site Coordinators Fhila Gallegos and Katrina Imbuido, Agency Coordinator Michael Whelihan and Director John Munoz. Keep up the great work!
The CIYJ Barbara Allen-Hagen Award, established in 2007, honors the legacy of Barbara Allen-Hagen, a dedicated advocate from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) who led the development of the Performance-based Standards project, now CIYJ’s signature program. This prestigious award recognizes facilities and programs that embody Barbara’s guiding principle: Treat all young people coming into facilities as one of our own. The awardees demonstrate the positive impact of adhering to research-based standards and the continuous improvement process championed by CIYJ.