Housing juveniles charged with crimes a growing issue in Pa.
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When a 16-year-old charged with second-degree murder fled from house arrest in November, Westmoreland County authorities scrambled to find a place to house him.
The county’s juvenile detention center had closed temporarily in June amid staffing shortages. Calls to numerous private and publicly owned facilities throughout Pennsylvania that house children charged with serious crimes went unanswered.
As a result, Braedon Dickinson was placed in a nonsecured shelter program for troubled youths that operates at Westmoreland County’s Regional Youth Services Center in Hempfield.
“If we don’t have beds, we have no choice but to put these kids out there. I don’t know what to do about it,” Common Pleas Judge Michele Bononi said.
Over the weekend, Dickinson and another teen fled from the shelter program. They were captured by state police early Monday.
Their flight put a spotlight on what officials said is an ongoing need to find available options for juveniles charged with crimes and who need to be detained in secured locations.
Westmoreland County Controller Jeff Balzer, chairman of the juvenile detention center board, said more than a dozen secure detention facilities, including two in Ohio, were contacted Monday to see if they had space to house the captured teens. None was able to take on new offenders, Balzer said.
“There was no other place to put him after he was picked up. It’s better than having him on the street. It was our only alternative,” Balzer said of the decision for a limited reopening of the secured juvenile detention center.
The problem is not limited to Westmoreland County.
Across Pennsylvania there are 13 secure juvenile detention facilities licensed to hold a total of 517 children charged with crimes, according to a study published in May by the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission. Staff shortages reduced the number of kids who can be placed in secured detention to 404.
Meanwhile, from 2006 through September 2021, state officials said 15 secured juvenile detention centers closed, including the Shuman Juvenile Center in Pittsburgh that once could hold up to 120 child offenders.
Only one public juvenile facility remains open in Western Pennsylvania, a 20-bed detention center in Erie.
Westmoreland officials said they were working to reopen a shuttered 16-bed facility possibly by the end this year. Commissioners on Monday authorized limited resumption of secured detention at the facility for two juveniles to be placed there on an emergency basis.
“It’s a problem that has been brewing for a very long time,” said Nancy Kukovich, chief operating officer for Adelphoi Inc., a private Latrobe-based company that provides juvenile housing and treatment services at five locations in Western Pennsylvania. Adelphoi operates 60 beds earmarked for juveniles ordered by the courts to receive treatment services. It also operates a rented 12-bed secure detention facility in Cambria County for juveniles charged with crimes in Allegheny County.
“For years we’ve been talking about this. Detention is structured in a way that is difficult for counties to do. Counties only get paid if there is a person in the bed, and it’s a financial drain for them,” Kukovich said.
Westmoreland County budgeted $1.4 million to operate its juvenile detention center in 2023 and, according to financial reports, is projected to spend more than $4.1 million to place juveniles in various other private and public secure and nonsecure programs. Preliminary spending projected for 2024 calls for the county to budget nearly $2.4 million to operate juvenile detention programs and another $4.2 million for placements.
Those costs include staffing at the center, which had been shuttered since June amid staff shortfalls that were highlighted as part of a series of critical state inspections. Hiring a new roster of employees has been a slow process.
Rich Gordon, the detention center’s director, said the county hired five workers over the last few weeks and training is ongoing for new staff in preparation for a potential resumption of full operations by year’s end.
A skeleton crew, which includes administrators, is on hand to oversee the two juveniles placed there this week. At least another six employees still need to be hired, Gordon said.
Allegheny issues
Allegheny County has dealt with similar issues after it closed Shuman Center and earlier this year announced it planned to reopen the facility in 2024.
That reopening has been delayed until late April, according to county spokeswoman Amie Downs.
Allegheny County signed a five-year, $73 million contract with Adelphoi to operate the 47-year-old facility in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood.
Initially, Adelphoi will operate one “pod” at Shuman capable of housing up to 12 people, the contract said. The nonprofit eventually will run five pods, for up to 60 juveniles.
Three pods will be for boys and one pod for girls, according to the contract. A fifth pod will house “interest of justice” cases, such as juveniles who face criminal charges in adult court.
Downs declined to answer questions about Adelphoi scaling up to 60 beds in 2024.
“That’s a question for the courts and the state,” said Downs, citing ongoing litigation.
Contractors have demolished parts of Shuman’s gym floor in preparation for Adelphoi’s operation, as well as ceilings in hallways, resident pods and elsewhere, Downs said. Plumbers are about 65% done with their work. Wiring has been updated.
Shuman’s renovation work has cost the county $440,844 to date, Downs said. County officials said in September they expected it to cost about $4.7 million.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked Shuman’s license in 2021, citing a history of violations and investigations. The center previously held up to 120 children, but it housed just 20 when it closed, officials said.