Talking Points: Should two metro juvenile detention centers re-open?

MINNEAPOLIS — For more than a century the Hennepin County Home School and Totem Town in St. Paul each housed as many as 100 of the area's most violent youth offenders. Since 2019 they have both been shut down.

Critics say the result has been a spike in some violent juvenile crime. State statistics show that between 2019 and 2021 juvenile arrests for robberies rose 12%, arson went up 8%, and 4% for auto thefts.

RELATED: Juvenile Detention Center Closures Blamed For Rise In Twin Cities Teen Crime

In this edition of Talking Points, Esme Murphy heard from some community leaders who say changes should be made.   

Miki Lewis-Frost, founder of the 8218 Truce Center, served time in Totem Town for assault when he was 16. He told WCCO's Esme Murphy it turned his life around.

"Reality actually struck me when I was placed there and realized I couldn't move when I wanted to, I couldn't, you know, see my parents when I wanted to," said Lewis-Frost.

Lewis-Frost believes an updated Totem Town which sits on a 72-acre campus on St. Paul's south side should reopen.

Martha Holton Dimick is a former prosecutor and retired Hennepin County Judge who ran against Mary Moriarty for Hennepin County Attorney. She believes the Home School closing continues to leave the county with nowhere to put dangerous juvenile offenders.  

"They're committing violent crimes, they're committing murders, they're committing rapes, they're committing aggravated robberies, they're committing arson, these are very serious offenses, and they have to have serious consequences," said Dimick.

Moriarty, Hennepin County Attorney, has come under fire for what her critics label as being soft on juvenile crime. She believes smaller, alternative group home lockups should have been established.

"Now, we simply do not have those types of facilities, those types of smallish group homes that have been recommended by the research," Moriarty said.

READ MORE: MPD Chief O'Hara, County Attorney Moriarty address justice, accountability

Violent kids are currently being sent to juvenile facilities in Red Wing or Bemidji. Additionally many are now being sent out of state to places as far away as Georgia, Missouri and Utah.

Talking Points airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., live on CBS News Minnesota.

NOTE: Below is a preview of Talking Points presented on "The 4."