$716 a day: That’s about how much it costs to house each of the area’s most violent juvenile offenders.
But now, there’s a new plan gaining momentum about where to house them.
A proposed new regional facility could put control back in the hands of the counties.
This idea of a regional facility started to become a reality about 18 months ago.
The Lehigh County Executive says there are a couple of reasons for this: First, they weren’t happy with the services of for-profit facilities.
There were also fewer juveniles being detained.
This proposed facility could address both of those issues.
At least 40 juveniles could be housed at a Berks County-owned facility on County Welfare Road in Leesport.
The cost to renovate and run the proposed Regional Youth Detention Center would be split four ways between Berks, Lehigh, Lackawanna and Dauphin counties.
The Southeast Youth Detention Agency would be governed by a 12-member council to run the center under a 20 year agreement.
“It’s safe, it’s secure. This is certainly not a dangerous place for kids and we’re certainly not putting our youth in a compromised building,” said Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel.
The detention center will have at least 40 beds, with each county entitled to 10.
Siegel believes the current system is costly, complex, and chaotic.
Siegel says the need for such a facility became clear, after a decade-long agreement with private companies, like Abraxis in Berks County, yielded less than favorable results.
“Abraxis is a not for profit detention operation that has a lot of troubling issues. Their collaboration with ICE, They’re on a provisional license because of discrepencies because of how the facility is run. So the model we have right now is just not suitable,” said Siegel.
Siegel says the counties involved have needed fewer beds due to declining numbers. In Lehigh County, that means just five kids a day.
That’s because diversion programs have proven successful in keeping all but the most violent juvenile offenders from lockup.
“Our diversion program has been so successful that we didn’t need a facility with 100-plus beds,” Siegel said.
“The more that we can keep kids at home and housed in their own community with their family and divert them from jail or divert them from detention, it’s for the best,” he said.
The annual cost to run it is estimated at 10.5 million dollars, with each county paying 2.6 million.
The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners will have a first reading of the proposal on Wednesday night, with a final reading in two weeks.