The Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center now has its full license back from the Office of Juvenile Affairs after being on probation for a year.

That happened after some employees were accused of inappropriate behavior.

Their biggest issue now is finding people to work at the center.

David Parker has been in charge for almost a year now, and he says he basically had to start from the ground up, and now that the center is off probation, he'd like to get national accreditation.

Prioritizing building a staff

In Parker's most recent bi-weekly report on the center, he says they did 17 job interviews this month, six people left, and they didn't hire anyone.

"It takes a special, unique person to work this job, and you get a lot of people in the door, but finding those people that you can retain is always challenging," said Parker.

Parker says he didn't fire people when he took over, but he did set new standards, so many people left on their own.

"There's got to be a level of professionalism, and by raising that level, some people that didn't want to achieve that level with us, quickly eliminated themselves, so it was a self-purging," said Parker.

The Office of Juvenile Affairs says the detention center needs 90 employees to be up to code, and one for every seven teenagers.

Right now, there are 49 workers and 31 residents.

"Will we ever get there? I don't know. I don't think our budget will support that. But a really good thing is, OJA has a process in place to raise that to eight to one. And eight to one doesn't sound big, but it's huge," said Parker.

Parker wants to hire 11 more people.

Earning national accreditation

He also wants to get a national accreditation from the American Correctional Association.

"It shows our customer base that everything that has been put in place to say, 'This is what you have to have to run a good facility, a humane facility, and an accountable facility.' It shows that we do that," said Parker.

Parker says he hopes to have a national accreditation by the end of next summer.

Resident update

Parker also started a reward program that earns residents more phone calls, snacks, or video game time if they follow the rules.

He says they will also receive tablets next month.