Other areas, including Prince George's County and Baltimore County, can expect a similar process, DeVore said.
The Sun obtained documents associated with the city case inspection that DeVore and about 40 DJS officials and administration-selected supervisors conducted April 5 and 6. Though not a complete analysis, the documents provide a rare look at a system that has long been criticized as overwhelmed and chaotic. The documents do not reveal details about the juveniles' crimes or their history in juvenile court.
Union officials said they fear the review will be used to unfairly punish caseworkers and perhaps even prompt mass firings.
"This is not a witch hunt," DeVore said. Once the citywide review is complete, staff training is likely to increase, unclear and inconsistent department policies might be modified and more resources could be deployed, he said. But he said that some staff changes might also be necessary.
"We won't accept `the system' as being the only reason an employee isn't doing the work," he said.
DeVore, selected 15 months ago by Gov. Martin O'Malley to head the Department of Juvenile Services, said discussions with Baltimore DJS employees and previous reviews of select city cases prepared him for what he would find in a citywide review.
"We saw glimmers of brightness, but we also saw many cases that needed improvement," DeVore said. He said he was most disturbed by the number of juvenile offenders who had not been contacted by their caseworkers and about lax supervision.
Documents from the review show that managers are "failing to ensure cases are supervised" and that an entire unit went unsupervised when a manager took an extended leave of absence.
At the department's Southern Office, supervisors simply do not review case files, according to the documents. Urgent problems in that office included a juvenile who possibly had moved to Florida; a juvenile who had not seen his caseworker since Jan. 8, in spite of his requirement for two contacts monthly; and a juvenile "noncompliant with school."
Workload - a long-standing complaint that has led to lawsuits in recent years - is another systemic issue documented in the review. In two offices alone, nine caseworkers are responsible for more than 50 youths apiece, and three are responsible for more than 60.
DJS officials said the department does not have any guidelines as to how many cases an employee should handle, but they are researching the issue.
