Westmoreland County Juvenile Detention Center closes after state report finds violations
GREENSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) -- The Westmoreland County juvenile detention center is temporarily closed due to staffing shortages and the need for repairs.
A board member at the jail said each day that passes costs $800 a person to house them somewhere else and it could be months before they reopen.
"Yesterday wouldn't be soon enough. I'd like to get it done right away," Westmoreland County Controller and detention center chairman Jeffrey Balzer said.
The clock is ticking at the Westmoreland County juvenile detention center to reopen its doors after a new state report found several violations.
"You had a weekend where you had a lot of bad behavior trigger at the same time," Balzer said, most dating back to earlier this year when an emergency inside left the facility on lockdown for hours due to low staffing levels.
"It was an emergency situation and they had to make a decision and one outweighed the other," he said.
Balzer says there are four people currently on staff compared to over two dozen to be fully staffed. And with 16 beds available, he says they don't have enough bodies.
In addition, he says they need more training and repairs are needed inside, including new cell doors.
"We looked at it as an opportunity to, 'let's shut it down.' Let's do the repairs to the facility that need to be done that should have been done over the last 30 years but let's get that stuff done and let's change this into what is needed for this area because everybody's closing these homes, we have nowhere to house these people, you can't put them in the adult prisons it's just not going to work out."
It could be six to seven months just to get the new cell doors, and then it comes down to hiring more people and training before they can reopen.
