SEE ATTACHED OPEN LETTER TO THE PUBLIC AND MEDIA
November 12, 2025
OPEN LETTER TO PUBLIC/MEDIA:
Another example that the juvenile justice system is broken. This time it involves a 16 year old female who has been in our custody since earlier this summer on felony level charges of assault with a knife. She is currently being held in the JDC located in Madison at the cost of more than $250.00 a day, that tab is picked up by the Stanton County taxpayer. This young lady has a track record of criminal activity and failure to adhere to rules in more than three states and yet she became a Stanton County problem because her family in crisis landed in Pilger, Nebraska. She is a ward of the state and yet the cost is passed on to Stanton County because they tell us the state has nowhere else for her to go. There is a fix, the State of Nebraska needs a state operated secure facility (call it a correctional center) for juveniles and delinquents that refuse to follow the law and commit criminal violations that are often violent. While they are awaiting court proceedings in detention, the state should pay the cost. Sometimes you have to put people behind a locked door. The state is great at passing the buck to the small counties to pay for mandates and other expenses that really should be the State’s responsibility. Filed criminal complaints in the Nebraska criminal Justice system have the words: The State of Nebraska versus and not the county versus on the complaint form.
So now this female has been adjudicated in the juvenile justice courts as admitting the criminal violations (Same as guilty in an adult court) and is to be sentenced in about 10 weeks. During this time it was arranged that she would be taken to a group home setting in Omaha until sentencing. This was actually set to happen the day before her last court appearance only to be changed to the day of court and then again it is continued until who knows when as I’m told the paperwork is signed according to DHHS, but no one has approved it yet. As of today she still was not able to be transported to the group home. It’s not the local DHHS case worker at fault, but someone on the state level who has got to get it done. So who pays the continued daily cost for her incarceration, you got it–Stanton County. In addition, how long will she stay in the group home, as just last week we had another juvenile female from Stanton County run away from a different group home in Omaha where she was being treated following her criminal admissions in juvenile court. She luckily was found safe and yet she now sits in a juvenile detention center on five Stanton County arrest warrants for her actions and I don’t even ask who is paying this bill.
It’s an issue that no one wants to talk about and yet it is a problem that is never going to go away. Juveniles commit crimes and need to be held accountable and answer with serious consequences. Parents don’t parent like they use to as they are afraid of getting in trouble and law enforcement is not designed to handle family dynamics that go astray. I certainly don’t have the answer other than I believe that sometimes you have to hold them responsible with nothing short of incarceration not only for our safety, but for the safety of the juvenile offenders as well. The system has always been flawed, but it’s now out of control and yes “It’s Broken”.
/S/ Sheriff Mike Unger—— Stanton County Sheriff’s Office