The large, two-story building that sits along County Welfare Road in Bern Township was quiet Friday afternoon.
Its halls were empty. Its rooms were vacant.
By spring 2028, that likely won’t be the case.
Berks Chief Deputy Operations Officer Larry Medaglia on Friday took members of the media on a tour of what will soon be the Keystone Regional Youth Detention Center. The facility is a combined effort of Berks, Dauphin, Delaware, Lackawanna and Lehigh counties.
A regional effort
The plan to create a regional youth detention center stems from an ongoing shortage of space to house youth offenders across Pennsylvania.
To make opening the detention center financially viable, Berks reached out to four other counties each facing the same challenges finding space to detain youth offenders. All are on board.
The new center will be in the building that served as Berks’ youth detention center until 2012.
Medaglia said now that all of the counties have unanimously approved resolutions to open and operate the facility, the county put bids out this month for the renovations needed. The hope is for construction to begin in January, with an opening date of April 2028.
An open house was held at the Keystone Regional Youth Center in Bern Township on Friday. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Once complete, the facility will house youth offenders on the second floor, as well as serve as first-floor temporary housing for children with complex mental and behavioral challenges who have nowhere else to go.
Four of the cooperating counties, Lackawanna being the exception, have already contracted with Berks to use the youth center portion of the facility as well as the youth detention section.
Medaglia said opening the center will cost about $20 million, which will be divided evenly among the five counties. However, officials have been and will continue to advocate for state and federal financial assistance to defray those expenses.
The completed center has the potential to house 64 youths in detention, Medaglia said, but based on the current need of the counties and preferred staffing levels the county is hoping to keep that number near 40. It will house boys and girls, and they will be kept separate.
The youth center will have a capacity of 15 youths. They will live separately from those in detention.
The facility will include a gymnasium, an outdoor recreation space and separate kitchens and dining areas for the detention center and youth center.
Medaglia said youths in detention will stay an average of 30 to 45 days. He said length of stays for those in the youth center are harder to predict, ranging anywhere from a few weeks to several months.
“Everyone involved in the creation of this center agreed that there must be programming for the kids,” Medaglia said. “This is a weigh station for these kids until they are placed somewhere else. This is an opportunity to stabilize these kids and get them ready for the next step.”
How will the center operate?
Medaglia said work has begun on creating a council to oversee the center.
The panel will be composed of three representatives from each participating county. They will be selected from the counties’ juvenile probation, finance and operations departments.
“We purposely wanted representatives without any political involvement,” Medaglia said.
The council will have oversight of the center, but daily operations will fall to Diane Edwards, currently executive director of the Berks County Youth Center. Under her will be a person charged with managing the detention center and another charged with supervising the youth center.
Officials could not immediately provide information about the operational cost of the facility but said it will be divided evenly.
Medaglia said he anticipates the facility will employ 40 to 100 people. They will be considered Berks employees, with the costs of their salaries and benefits also being covered by contributions from the other counties.
He said the decision to make them county employees was based on the idea that workers would be eligible for union positions, guaranteed competitive wages and given more generous pensions than at facilities run by private companies.
“We know staffing the facility will be a heavy lift,” he said. “But we are hoping that we can attract good candidates who have the necessary requirements to ensure we are running the best program that we can.”
Medaglia said youths housed at the facility, both in detention and the youth center, will have access to complete health care — including mental health and substance use counseling — as well as educational opportunities in classrooms.