On the morning of June 6, the phone rarely leaves the ear of Barry Drizin, the primary Children’s Services liaison to 20/20 Juvenile Detention Center. His fingers rarely leave the computer keyboard.  

“And this morning I only have one case to work on (with 20/20),” he said. “You should see how crazy it is when I have a whole stack of them.”

Drizin checks in at 20/20 every morning to see if any juveniles were admitted the previous evening. He may find one child there or he may find 10. 

“When a child is brought to the center, I check to see if the child is in the agency’s custody,” Drizin said. “Some days I have one case to work on, other days there’s a huge pile.” 

About five months ago, Drizin took over as the Children’s Services liaison to 20/20 for Dave Wittenauer, who served as the primary liaison for a decade. Drizin was on the backup rotation for two years before becoming the primary liaison. He now also trains his backups and carries a caseload with the agency in an Ongoing section.  

“Dave actually put my name into the mix to be the primary liaison – he was my mentor for this position,” Drizin said. “It started out that I would be here at 20/20 for two hours each morning. Depending on how many cases there are, it may turn into a lot more than two hours.” 

When a child in the agency’s custody is brought into the juvenile detention center, Drizin contacts the Children’s Services workers involved with the case to get more information and discuss placement for the child since 20/20 doesn’t like to keep the children at the center for too long. He has laptop access to SACWIS to gather more information. He then goes to court to represent the agency and the caseworker. 

“What some caseworkers don’t realize is that I can file the complaint form for them here at 20/20 (when it concerns a child in the agency’s custody at the center),” Drizin said. “They can just e-mail me the information and I’ll take care of it. Then I’ll e-mail them after court and let them know what happened. It alleviates a lot of time for the caseworker.” 

The case on the morning of June 6 involved a 17-year-old female who was charged with solicitation after approaching an undercover officer. The girl had been missing since March before she was picked up by police and brought to 20/20. 

“Most cases I see deal with juvenile delinquency,” Drizin said. “A lot of times the parents will resolve any concerns we had with them, but the kids are still considered delinquent. Those are the frustrating cases because you can’t make a kid go through counseling. It seems to be the same kids – we place them and they run. You try to establish a rapport with the kids, but it’s hard to change someone who has lived 15 to 16 years of their life in an unstable environment. They’re not accustomed to having someone worry about them.” 

Before starting at the agency three years ago, Drizin was a juvenile probation officer in Boone County, Kentucky.  

“I was more than just a probation officer – there’s a lot of counseling that’s involved,” he said. “As a father myself, it’s hard to see what these kids go through because they are so close in age to my kids. I often think to myself, ‘Where are the adults?’ and ‘What went wrong in this child’s life?’ Any of these things could have easily happened to my kids or their friends if one little thing was different.” 

Drizin said he hopes he has an impact on the children he meets at 20/20, but he understands that may not always happen. 

“A lot of the kids project their anger on me in court,” he said. “It could just be a facial expression, but I know they’re angry. I don’t always meet with the kids, but sometimes I will to explain what’s going to happen. I see my role here (at 20/20) as assisting the caseworker, but when I’m doing my caseworker duties for the agency, it’s all about the kids. 

“A lot of these kids I interact with through 20/20 just want to be done with our agency,” he continued. “They think they can take care of themselves, but they’re here, so obviously they’re not making adult decisions. They also don’t realize that we can help them even when they’re aging out of the system – they just think we’re going to go away when they turn 18, but I’m hoping that with the proper information, they’ll rethink that idea and let us help them.” 

Aiesha Walker, section chief over the Ongoing unit Drizin is part of, said his previous job experiences make him a “natural fit” for the position. 

“Cases that are multi-system involved can sometimes be complex and frustrating, but Barry thrives in fast paced and dynamic situations,” she said. “His previous experience with the juvenile court system and his ability to thoroughly process information provides him with the necessary insight to deal with these multi-faceted cases. The caseworkers also like the fact that one of their peers can provide the connection between 20/20 and Children’s Services to ensure a smooth and consistent process. Barry does an outstanding job in filling that role.” 

Changing from a juvenile probation officer to a Children’s Services caseworker three years ago was a major change for Drizin. 

“It is hard to work with the younger kids sometimes and see what they’re going through,” he said. “At the end of my first year here, I had an open case where the mother rolled over on her 9 month old and smothered him. It was during Christmas break and she had just been watching TV with her other kids too.  

"In the 27 years I’ve worked in this type of field, I’d never had to deal with anything like that,” he continued. “I had just met with the family – I was actually closing the case the day I got the phone call about the infant’s death. That was a tough one. You just have to learn not to take your job home with you.”  

Just as Drizin finished that line, his phone rang again. Then his eyes went to the computer – a couple of new e-mails had come in concerning other cases.  

It was time to get back to work.