KDKA Investigates: Long-term effects of closing Pittsburgh's only juvenile detention center
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It couldn't have come at a worse time: the closing of the region's only juvenile detention center at a time when youth gun violence has escalated to terrifying levels.
Young people are being arrested for serious crimes but there's no place to put them.
It's been a spike in juvenile crime unseen in the Pittsburgh region. Teenagers, some as young as 14 and 15, are getting guns and using them at the slightest provocation.
To make matters worse, if police arrest them for anything less than murder, they're generally set free.
"They don't have no fear because they know nothing's going to happen to them. With Shuman not around, there's no consequence for anything these kids do," said Richard Garland with the Violence Prevention Initiative.
There's simply no place to put them. There are currently no juvenile detention beds in Allegheny County, and only 16 for all southwestern Pennsylvania.
The reason: a year ago, last August, the State Department of Human Services revoked the county's license to operate the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center where juveniles arrested for serious crimes could be held to await a hearing or trial.
Rather than fight the order, the county shut Shuman down and police have been spinning their wheels ever since.
"It's frustrating to a lot of people because you do end up arresting people multiple times and they end up right back on the street," said former Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert during an April interview.
Hundreds of juveniles are now on probation, about 75 of them are on electronic monitoring ankle bracelets, which some have found easy to cut off. But, if they're arrested again, police say they have no choice but to take them home once again to their parents.
District Justice Eugene Ricciardi said he recently signed that warrant for a 17-year-old arrested for the seventh time with an illegal gun. Once again, the teen was released.
"Something's wrong with the system. When I sign an arrest warrant for a juvenile for the seventh time for carrying a gun, there's a breakdown somewhere and it need as to be corrected. Why is this individual still on the streets with a gun? Seven times," District Judge Ricciardi added.
To Ricciardi, the answer is simple.
"Give us back a Shuman. The challenge is we need a certified detention facility where certain juveniles need to be detained."
There have been talks to establish a new juvenile detention center. For months, they have been that… just talks. The county is not interested in running Shuman again, and the State Department of Human Services tells KDKA it's not in the juvenile detention business.
There's some discussion within the courts about hiring a private contractor to take over and run Shuman, but no word of any progress.
"They're still trying to figure out legally and logistically what kind of a center could be used. How quickly it could be staffed and how quickly they could get it up and running," Allegheny Co. Executive Rich Fitzgerald said.
Garland, who works with at-risk youth to find redirect them from crime, says a place like Shuman is needed to take the most violent ones off the streets.
"We have to find a place for these kids that are off. The charts right now, who are carrying these guns and still doing the shooting," Garland said.
The county just put out a request to anyone who wants to buy, redevelop or operate Shuman and although it will give preference to anyone wanting to run it as a juvenile detention center, they're entertaining all offers.