Westmoreland juvenile detention center set to reopen Wednesday

With nearly $1 million in renovations still to come and learn-as-you-go training planned for some staff, Westmoreland County will reopen its juvenile detention center Wednesday.

The center will have four beds available initially while staff members get their footing, director Rich Gordon said.

“Some of our staff have never worked in corrections; some of our staff have never seen our type of kid,” he said. “So we’re going to gradually introduce them to it; we’ll gradually build that up.”

State officials were expected to do a walk-through Monday afternoon, and Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michele Bononi started working through a list of juveniles who are being held elsewhere to determine whether they could be moved to the Hempfield facility.

“If we can bring them back in, we will,” she said. “I will look to save you money any way I can.”

The portion of the Regional Youth Services Center that houses juvenile criminal offenders has been largely closed since June because of staffing shortages and operational problems. It temporarily closed following a series of state inspections after an incident last spring in which a teenager there attempted suicide. Inspectors also pointed to other incidents, including a near riot, as examples of training deficiencies among employees.

Ten people have been hired for the juvenile detention center and two more positions are vacant, Gordon said. He expects at least eight beds to be available eventually to accommodate a $961,000 construction project expected to begin this year. That includes replacing security doors and locks that have been in use since the facility was built in 1979.

An eight-bed unsecured shelter facility for at-risk juveniles that also is in the building has continued operations during the detention center closure.

The current detention center staffing level is enough to supervise four juveniles. Gordon said he is working with a recruitment firm to fill the remaining vacancies.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any… backup at this point in time,” he said. “The ones that don’t have the experience have been working at the shelter.”

Commissioner Ted Kopas, a member of the juvenile detention board, encouraged Gordon to keep up with recruiting.

“It can’t stop,” Kopas said.

Members of the juvenile detention board praised the opening at its meeting Monday.

“From the court’s perspective, you have no idea how happy this makes me,” Bononi said. “We are so lucky to have this because there’s so many counties that just don’t have any place.”

The county rented space for youth caught up in the criminal system in other public and private facilities, including beds at adult prisons in Allegheny, Lawrence and Lehigh counties. In some cases, the county has paid up to $800 a day to house juveniles.

Members of the board also discussed the possibility of adding space for more youth offenders by moving three pods capable of holding dozens of people each that are sitting unused nearby at the former SCI Greensburg property. Controller Jeffrey Balzer, who serves as the chairman of the juvenile detention board, said they’re in excellent condition.

“I have to believe that we can use these either for the shelter side or to help you on the detention side,” he said.

He hopes to have the board visit the pods in the next week.

Westmoreland County’s facility, along with a 20-bed center in Erie, are the only two government-operated detention programs in Western Pennsylvania, according to a study released last year by the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission.