How detention centers in Allegheny and Westmoreland County plan to address juvenile crime crisis
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A statewide crisis involving the juvenile justice system.
Across the 60-plus counties in Pennsylvania, there are only seven detention centers for juveniles, leaving teenagers without the proper level of care or any consequences for their actions.
"We're failing these kids," said Nancy Kukovich, CEO of Adelphoi.
Juvenile crime is spiking statewide, but the closures of the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Allegheny County and the Westmoreland Juvenile Detention Center leave few options for secure detention.
"They are roaming the streets, they've got ankle bracelets on, but they commit other crimes and get into other kinds of trouble," Kukovich said.
Norm Mueller, a Westmoreland County probation officer, says with no secure facility to go to, many are slapped with an ankle bracelet and sent back into the community awaiting hearings or trials and reoffending.
"We're limited in what we can do, and it's pretty much a disservice to the community to put people who need to be detained and removed from the community back into the community," Mueller said. "But we actually don't have any real options at this time."
He says the average ages of teens charged with serious crimes are 16 and 17.
"It certainly is related to guns and the access that these kids have with guns," Kukovich said. "A fistfight 20 years ago is now fought with a gun."
Kukovich is the CEO of Adelphoi, a residential, community-based program focused on youth placement and treatment. She says many juveniles have ended up at its facility in Latrobe since Shuman shut down in 2021, something they said wasn't an appropriate placement for those teens.
KDKA-TV previously reported on multiple juveniles leaving the unsecured facility and stealing cars. Kukovich said then that those incidents were side effects of the detention crisis statewide.
"If they were detained in our detention center, that obviously wouldn't have happened because they're in a secure environment," Mueller said.
Right now, Kukovich says juveniles in Allegheny County in need of detention are sent to a detention center in Cambria County, but space there is also limited, forcing them to turn more than 250 teens back to the streets.
"What the courts have told us is that of those 254, something like 10 of them have gone on to be involved in other serious crimes," Kukovich said. "I think 15 of them have eventually wound up with a crime serious enough to be considered an adult and put in the county adult prison."
Adelphoi is set to take over operations at Shuman, reopening, officials hope, this spring. But finding the staff to run it, Kukovich says, is the number one issue. So far, there have been 25 hires.
"We've probably interviewed 300, 400 people to get that 25," Kukovich said. "So, there's a serious lack of staff that we need in order to get the job done."
Westmoreland County is facing the same issue in trying to reopen its juvenile detention center, which closed last June. Westmoreland County Commissioner Ted Kopas says outdated state regulations and required college credits make it harder to find the right candidates.
It is something, he says, that needs to change on the state and county levels.
"It's really a shared responsibility and how we come together and solve what is a really difficult situation and frankly, a public safety crisis that's looming," he said.
And while Kopas says the center hopes to reopen by the end of the month, juvenile crime rates continue to rise.
"There are a lot more violent juveniles than any time in our history, and we owe it to the constituents that we are sworn to serve to get this right," Kopas said.
"We have to fix this, and we have to get it right for the safety of all of our communities," he added.
If and when Shuman reopens, it plans to start by providing 12 beds, with the long-term goal of 60. In Westmoreland County, the center hopes to have 16.