The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

131
hanging out and that sort of thing. Sioux City has always struck me as a
place where education wasn’t a real high priority. If it’s not a high priority
in the family to begin with and then you go to school and someone is
saying, you don’t quite fit in here, we’re going to find someplace else for
you to be during the day. I think that’s creating some problems...
There were some decision makers who did not point to factors that hinder their
job performance or have changed there outlook concerning their job. Others, however,
indicated a lack of resources to increased caseload sizes as possible factors. The
following quotes represent some of these sentiments.
I knew what the job entailed when I came here
It’s pretty much what I thought it would be.. .There is no hindrance. . .1
love my job.
….increasing size of the caseload
...One of the greatest I’ve seen creating artificial restraints is the
absorption of the juvenile justice system by the state government.. .1 think
the techniques and the availability of services has changed considerably.
Paper work, lack of funds, lack of resources available to us. Placements,
residential treatment centers. Funding of residential treatment centers
would be the biggest, there’s no money, no place to put the child.
…lack of residential treatment facilities close to Sioux City.
I am probably a bit more cynical over the years. There have been changes
in clients. Clients have become harder to deal with. Their problems have
gotten more severe. . . There is more of a need for services and types of
services and less of funding coming in for those kind of services needed.
So you see an increase in need but a decrease in ability to attempt to solve
those problems...