Partnership hopes to ease county’s struggle with lack of detention center beds, control rising costs

Lackawanna County will consider partnering with three other similarly-sized counties to found a new 40-bed juvenile detention center in Bucks County. 

Commissioners Thom Welby, Chris Chermak and Bill Gaughan will convene at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the county government center for a special meeting to discuss the proposal and a nearly 22-year intergovernmental cooperation agreement with Berks, Dauphin and Lehigh counties. 

Berks County would oversee management of the facility, which is located in Bern Twp. on the same government-owned land as as county’s jail.

Lackawanna County’s Department of Revenue & Finance said in a legislative cover sheet that the agreement could potentially double the county’s juvenile detention costs — from a $700,225 general fund liability to $1,421,366 — but will better manage future costs because year-over-year expenses for detention have gone up since 2023 by more than 70%, and are projected to keep at that pace.

“It is the basic law of supply and demand,” the department wrote. “Without adequate supply, costs will continue to increase, and no analysis of the situation indicates an increase in supply to meet this demand.”

Under the agreement, the four county governments would share a quarter of the facility’s nearly $10.5 million operating cost and equally split its 40 beds. If one county in the agreement temporarily needed more than their allotted 10 beds, they could potentially also make use of another county’s unused beds.

The county’s local juvenile detention center closed in 2018. Since then, the county made use of several facilities, including as far away as Ohio. However, other counties compete for beds at the same handful of facilities, leaving individual governments without a guarantee of placement. In the proposal, the county noted they’ve been denied bed placement 112 times in the last three years. 

“Not only is there a dearth of beds to support the increase in juvenile crime, in many cases, those available beds require travel for placement,” the cover sheet read, citing a 2023 study on the issue. “This issue limits contact juveniles have with their attorney, their family, schools and other community services.”