What’s happening within the Juvenile Detention centers as an entirety?

a. Success of our System

Past 10 years,

1. Secure detention decreased 74% (10 years) and 58% (5 years)

a. 10,295 fewer detention admissions

2. Residential placement decreased 75% (10 yrs) and 62% (5 yrs)

a. 3,898 fewer placements

3. Total delinquency placement expenditures savings

a. $172 million (10yrs)

b. $53 million (last 3 years)

4. Recidivism rate in 2019 was 11.7%

5. 85% of the youth complete supervision without a new offense

6. 84% of youth in the system made full restitution

7. 88% of high/very high-risk youth had a lower risk to re-offend at time of case closing

8. Since 2017, roughly 80% of first-time youth were diverted from adjudication

9. Implementation of the Pa Detention Risk Assessment System

a. A key variable in the reduction of secure detention

b. Providing alternative to detention services

c. Yielding a success rate of roughly 90% for those youth released or placed on an alternative to detention program

b. Reduction in the need for secure detention

i. Resulting in the closing of facilities over the past 4-5 years (prior to 2022)

ii. Current Facilities

1. 10 County Operated detention centers

2. 5 Privately operated detention centers

3. 2 out of state detention centers (ohio)

c. Licensed vs Operational Beds

 i. 537 licensed beds

ii. 434 operational

1. 7 counties have sole access to roughly 307 operational beds

2. Leaving 60 (89%) counties to vie for less than 127 operational beds

a. Today, 45% of these counties have no immediate access to beds

3. 66% of the counties are not able to meet their daily needs

a. 191-243 daily detention bed needs for 60 counties

b. Daily needs based on regions:

i. Western – 60-84 detention beds

ii. Central – 50-61 detention beds

iii. Northeast – 35-42 detention beds

iv. Southeast – 55-67 detention beds

2. Impact on Dauphin County

a. Case Examples:

1. NJ: Trafficked female with aggressive history that was charged with Arson for setting fire to the home of her trafficker.  NO DETENTION BED IN PA OR OH.  Probation officers had to watch her for 48 hours until she could be a forthwith to NCSTU. 
2. SA: Juvenile was charged with a gun, but JPO could not locate a detention bed.  Probation officer requested detention at a later date due to behavior in the community and no detention bed was available.  Juvenile was shot 2 weeks later (survived), but had he been in detention, likely would not have happened.
3. VP: uvenile accumulated over 15 dockets of charges before a detention bed could be secured for this juvenile. Offenses include stolen cars, assaults, gun charges, and thefts.

b. Community Protection

1With the lack of resources, we have been risking community protection and, in many cases, creating new victims.

 a. 28% of cases where a detention was not available resulted in new charges in the community in 2024.

2. Serious gun charges – alarming trend. In 2024, Dauphin County alone at 63 youth charged with firearm offenses, some repeat offenders that were on the streets due to lack of detention beds.

3. Gang trends are increasing.

4. NO resources available for females.

C. Pa Detention Risk Assessment Instrument {Appendix B}

1. 827 Assessments Completed in 2024

2. 138 (17%) scored to detention

• a. 30 (22%) were committed to secure detention
• b. 34 (25%) went committed to a shelter
• c. 74 (54%) were released to the community

3. What can be done to help combat some of these issues falling on probation officers, provider community, and sometimes even families?

a. We need a system that appropriately funds the services needed for our youth

b. Regionalized Approach

c. In doing so, Behavioral Health Services

d. Requires statewide coordination

• i. Can’t be sole responsibility of the Counties to fix this critical issue

e. Legislatively, it is the state’s responsibility to ensure our secure detention needs are met

• i. The state needs to take a more active role

f. State budgeting system is archaic and requires a major overhaul

• i. Funding mechanism to ensure these facilities are able to operate the number of beds needed.
• ii. We are continuing to lose community-based and residential providers and if this is not addressed promptly community safety will become increasingly vulnerable.

g. Incentivize this profession

1. Workforce Investment
   1. Similar to the Child Welfare System
      1. Child Welfare Education for Baccalaureates (CWEB)
      2. Child Welfare Education For Leadership (CWEL)
   2. Tuition Assistance for Criminal Justice majors