by Tanna Tarpley

Guam - A riot at the Department of Youth Affairs last month and the recent escape of three clients is proof that the agency suffers from a lack of proper staffing. The number of clients at the facility outweighs the number of officers controlling the area.

DYA has a major problem: the population of clients continues to increase but the number of officers remains the same. Spokesperson William Castro says the numbers are insufficient and without additional resources to adequately control and monitor the area, the community can expect more and more incidents at the Youth Correctional Facility. "The governor and my director are finding ways to seek help from different agencies within the public safety side and different avenues to approach with the compact/impact hopefully they can find assistance, budget wise, to meet the needs of the youth here being detained," he told KUAM News.

DYA currently has three facilities - the Delta Building for females, holding around 15 girls at a time; the Echo and Foxtrot buildings for males hold around 40. Castro says they only have enough manpower to have one guard per facility for a 12-hour shift. This means that one officer could be in control of more than 20 youths at any given time.

This is exponentially higher than the required officer-to-client ratio, which Castro explains should be 11-to-1. Additionally, the DYA cottage homes in Talofofo has ten clients, with one guard for males and one for females. "Eventually moral isn't that great but the director has approached them and spoke to them and they are trying their best to make their regular schedules and come in on the days when needed," he said.

The situation has gotten so bad that the department has even utilized cooks and maintenance workers to augment the shortage.

With escapes and riots happening so frequently, residents like Ben Torres are wondering why elected leaders aren't doing more. "Maybe the Legislature has got get right down to it. Plain and simple man - it is just the lack of employees so find the funding, find the money and find the department the man power that is needed," he said.

Currently DYA is training three new officers to help augment the manpower shortage the department faces today; however, given the current officer to client ratio this increase in employment will not be sufficient.