News

Nov 06, 2023

How do we end the violence: Bailey Taylor

Jun 10, 2023 -Messenger photo by Kelby WingertAssistant Webster County Attorney

Jun 10, 2023

-Messenger photo by Kelby WingertAssistant Webster County Attorney Bailey Taylor handles the juvenile prosecution cases in Webster County, as well as family treatment court.

To help facilitate answers and solutions to the problem of violence permeating through Fort Dodge, The Messenger is kickstarting the conversations with those in the community who want to be part of the solution. This week, Messenger news reporter Kelby Wingert sat down to talk with Assistant Webster County Attorney

Bailey Taylor, who handles juvenile prosecutions and family court in Webster County.

Q. How can the general public be convinced that the violence is a problem that can actually be solved?

That most people right now, they’ll see on Facebook or hear on the radio, another shots fired and it's just like, ‘Oh, another set of kids just being dumb, another person that's going to end up dead,’ and it hasn't always been this way. Now, I’m not from Fort Dodge, but you know that the community hasn't always been that way and it doesn't need to be that way. Getting people to understand that there is hope for our community and it is possible to make it a better place, but it's not going to happen overnight, and it's not going to happen by a small group of people. It's going to happen with every single person in Fort Dodge and Webster County coming together and actually trying.

Our community didn't end up this way overnight. I started working here five years ago, and it was not like this. When I started working here five years ago, there weren't shots fired every two weeks. It was very rare. So it just progressively gets worse, but I think it can progressively get better, but everybody needs to do their part. And that can either be doing your part as a parent, in your job or just as a regular citizen. Everybody has a role, no matter how small or big it could be.

Q: What is the first thing you would recommend as a course of action?

Everybody needs to figure out what their own role is. So as an attorney and a parent, getting involved with youth and volunteering my time and my thoughts is something that I can do. And as a reporter, you’re taking the time to get stories out there and to look at what needs to be heard by the public. But any person here in Fort Dodge can stop to think about what their role is. Teachers, they’re constantly thinking about what they can do. I mentioned parents, but even somebody that doesn't have any youth in the community right now, or isn't even from here and just moved here. You can all play a role.

Everybody thinking about what their role is and then actually doing something. And so that's why it's really awesome that Paige put together Next Gen because she looked at her role as a parent, probation officer, somebody that used to work in the schools, and she put it into action. And all it was was a Facebook message reaching out to me and another dozen people and look at what has been created. And I’m not saying that every person needs to go out there and join a committee or join a coalition, but it's like the smallest things can start to build and make a big difference.

Q: What can the average citizen do to help address this problem?

What is an average citizen here in Fort Dodge? Because I think we are an extremely diverse community from a lot of different backgrounds, so I don't think that "an average citizen" is really a good term to use because everybody can bring something different to the table.

Going beyond what you do on your average day is what the average citizen can do. So if your average thing is to volunteer at the food bank, what could you do to go even a step further? If your average thing to do every single day is to volunteer at the library, what could you do in that capacity to go even further to reach more people in the community? You want to hope that every person here in Fort Dodge is doing good deeds, but it's going to take people to go a step further than what they would normally do or normally consider as being a committed person to the community.

Q: Can you define "at-risk"?

In today's world, I don't think you can, and that's what is the scariest and saddest part about our community right now. You know, you have those kiddos that it's common sense that they’re at risk — they come from a household where they’ve seen violence, where they’ve seen domestic violence, drug use, etc. Those are the kids that are going to be the "at risk" kiddos, who are going to come to school, they’re going to be rough around the edges. Yeah, it's those kids, but in my capacity as the juvenile prosecutor, I am seeing kids from the broad range of spectrum, I’m seeing different genders, different gender identities, different races, different backgrounds. The kiddo from, you know, a two parent household where they’ve loved and cared for them forever, is just as at-risk as well. And of course, we want to focus on the ones that are at the highest risk, and we will and I think that's really what Next Gen is trying to do. Because I think we need to start where it's the worst, and hopefully we can help every kiddo but unfortunately, just because of things like social media, friend groups, it's so hard to pin down which kids are at risk and which ones aren't. Because right now, it's looking like all kids are. They’re just all more susceptible than they used to be to getting involved in violence, drugs, volatile relationships, everything. Because our world is just a violent, volatile place to live in, that's unfortunately what all kids are seeing and what is becoming their norm.

Q: In your experience working with juveniles and families in the court system, what are you seeing as the biggest needs? What are they saying they need to be successful?

Let me explain my role a little bit. I handle all the juvenile matters in my office, which it's an umbrella of two very different things. So I handle juvenile prosecutions, which are children that commit criminal offenses. And they start out with the juvenile court services here and if it's serious enough, or it's of the nature that we believe more intervention is necessary, it gets referred to me for juvenile prosecution. I also handle all of the children in need of assistance cases, which are families and children involved with the Department of Health and Human Services. So the goal of those types of cases isn't to prosecute anyone, it's to ensure the safety of the children and reunite families. But essentially, for both of them, what we need is services. I mean, just the broad spectrum and lack of services is heartbreaking. Completely heartbreaking. For example, a kiddo who is involved with juvenile court services, they’ve been adjudicated delinquent. There's hardly anything except for Charles Clayton's program that's available to them to kind of rehabilitate them. Because the goal is rehabilitation. We want this kiddo to be successful. We want them to go on and have a good adult life. And we want them to leave that juvenile record behind them and go on to be an adult that avoids the system.

The lack of resources available, like a "scared straight tour." That's not a thing here in Webster County. I wish it was but we don't have the manpower to do it. Who's going to do, it who's going to take these kids to the state training school or to prison and show them around and say, "If you don't turn your life around, this is how it's going to be"? Or weekend programs for kids that can stay with parents during the week and then on the weekends, they can go to a facility and essentially be monitored because weekends might be when there's the most issues with juveniles here in the community. None of that exists anymore and it did in the past.

When I started as an attorney, I was in private practice in Algona, and I did do some child in need of assistance cases and even just changing from that five year span, you wouldn't believe how much services have decreased. It's hard. And nobody wants to get into these kinds of fields because it is the hardest. Working at a detention center, working as an in-home provider with the department, nobody wants to do this kind of work anymore.

In my role as the juvenile prosecutor, every child that we see in the courtroom has potential because they’re a child, they’re a juvenile, they have the potential to be a better adult. Adults don't have the resiliency to turn things around, I think, as kids do. Every single kiddo you see has so much potential, and it's just whether or not we have the people and the resources to back those kids.

Q: Thinking of juveniles and families you’ve worked with in the courts and the ones who successfully got back on the right track, what do you think they did or had that made them successful?

I think that the families I see that are successful are the ones that take advantage of the resources that we do have, those that make the most of the limited resources in our community. So for example, with a family that's involved with the Department of Health and Human Services, mom and dad are in recovery and those kiddos are automatically going to be more at risk because they’re coming from a home where there's drugs involved, etc. The families that are successful are the ones that go to treatment, that complete treatment, that utilize things in our community like AA and NA meetings — which cost nothing — and they continue to contribute to those whether it be they be a sponsor, they provide daycare to other families that need to go to meetings, etc.

And then the juveniles that are getting into trouble, if they’re placed in a qualified residential treatment program (QRTP), they make the best out of the programs that they "have to go through." If a kiddo is in trouble and staying at home is not going to be the best option for them, the next step would be a qualified residential treatment program. And the kids that are successful or that we hope to be, are the ones that go through their programming, they come back to the community, they meet with their probation or their juvenile court officer, they get involved with stuff at school, they use the resources at the school. It's amazing how the public and the parochial schools in our community have resources, you just have to ask.

The kids and the families that are the most successful are the ones that make use of the resources and never stop making use of the resources, whether that be when they get to the point that they don't need to utilize the resource anymore, so then they become a part of the resource. So an example would be a kiddo going through the juvenile court system, and then turning around and helping peers that are going through the same thing.

Q: What resources do you think our community needs to help kids who have been in trouble get back on the right path and not re-offend?

The ideas are unlimited. Like I mentioned earlier, things like weekend programs, day programs, "scared straight" tours, mentor programs that also don't have a stigma attached to them for kiddos. More services that are family oriented, so not just looking at the kiddo that's going through things but that can come into the home and provide services to the whole family.

It depends on where they’re at in life – is it preventative or rehabilitative? Programs like AFES, and now Next Gen, are more focused on the preventable side: What can we do to avoid these kids from becoming more at risk? And then we have on the other side where kids have made poor decisions, they’re involved with juvenile court services and their rehabilitative side of it. Those services are going to look a little bit different than the services we have for prevention, but both are necessary in our community.

We can't give up on those kids that are a part of [violent behaviors] because if we can just get one kid to be rehabilitated, then it's like a never-ending circle. They can help with the preventative side of it because they’re going to know what other kids need that they didn't have."

There's so many ideas. It's just the problem is where are we going to get the funding and where are we going to get the people that are willing to do it? AFES is an amazing program. Look at what one person did just by volunteering his time and care. Why can't there be four AFESes here in Fort Dodge? We need it. If I wanted to start a program like that, I couldn't do it by myself. And so again, it's going to be taking people who will volunteer their time and their expertise to make these resources available.

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