SC Senate issues overwhelming ‘no confidence’ vote in Juvenile Justice director
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The South Carolina Senate cast an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the embattled director of the Department of Juvenile Justice, who has faced harsh criticism since an agency audit found pervasive staffing and security problems at the department.
Tuesday’s vote against Director Freddie Pough, which is only ceremonial, comes four weeks after dozens of juvenile correctional officers and teachers walked off the job in protest over working conditions and safety concerns at a Columbia detention facility for juvenile offenders.
Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, chairs a subcommittee that has been reviewing the Juvenile Justice audit. The subcommittee recently issued its own vote of no confidence in Pough’s leadership of the department, and Shealy motioned Tuesday that the full Senate adopt a similar stance.
She said she and other senators have brought their concerns about the agency to Gov. Henry McMaster and his staff to no avail.
“They have not listened to the complaints, and the conditions of that agency,” Shealy said. “And the conditions are bad.”
She said she hears regularly from juvenile correctional officers who fear for their safety and said both employees and juveniles housed at the facilities have suffered serious injuries in recent weeks.
A discussion Tuesday largely centered on whether removing Pough and installing a new director would have any impact on the department, absent comprehensive juvenile justice reform. Senators ultimately voted 34-4 to express their lack of confidence in his leadership and in his inability to reform the agency.
Jarid Munsch, a Juvenile Justice spokesman, said Tuesday evening that Pough had no comment on the Senate’s vote.
“Director Pough and DJJ are focused on rehabilitating young people and supporting families throughout the state,” Munsch said in a statement.
The director’s fate, however, rests solely in the hands of McMaster, who hasn’t wavered on Pough, despite intense pressure from lawmakers and frequent calls for his resignation.
McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said Tuesday that the governor continues to support the director and is working with him to ensure the agency moves in the right direction.
“Director Pough has already implemented important recruitment and retention policies by providing bonuses to existing employees and signing bonuses for new ones,” Symmes said in a statement. “Improvements still need to be made, and they will be.”
Department faces staffing shortage
The agency is severely short-staffed, having lost more than 200 correctional officers since October 2016. Its inability to attract and retain workers has led to a large spike in violent incidents at detention facilities, the recent audit found.
Juvenile Justice officials recently increased the bonus money the agency gives new front-line staff and existing workers in light of the report, and are enhancing their advertising and recruitment efforts in an attempt to bolster the workforce. The department also plans to raise worker salaries with a $4.5 million outlay it received in this year’s state budget.
While the agency is still working out the exact dollar figures, it has proposed raising base pay for juvenile correctional officers by $4,000 and case managers by $6,000.
Pough, a former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division lieutenant who has led the Department of Juvenile Justice since 2017, has repeatedly defended his tenure at the Juvenile Justice Department and said the harsh legislative audit cast an incomplete and often inaccurate picture of the agency.
He, like some of the senators who voted against Shealy’s motion, has called for wholesale juvenile justice reform in South Carolina and advocated for passage of the S.C. Juvenile Justice Reform Act.
But Sens. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, and Shealy, who jointly sponsored the reform bill that has for years remained stalled in committee, expressed a lack of support in Pough’s leadership of the agency.
“It is difficult to watch and see what is happening there,” Malloy said Tuesday, calling the situation at Juvenile Justice “out of control.”
“The biggest problem that Director Pough has is that he’s lost the confidence of his people,” he said. “And it’s hard to effectively lead whenever that happens.”
