Lycoming County District Attorney Tom Marino sees a proposed $60 million county juvenile detention center as a potential blueprint for others nationwide.
Marino, who is proposing the idea, said the county needs a new center because of a rise in crime committed by kids.
“We're having an overabundance of juvenile delinquency in the county, even more so than when I was here 20 years ago. More violent, not only dealing drugs, but carrying guns,” he said. “Sometimes I refer to them as wannabe gang members, but still, there are factions that do not like each other, and someone would get shot, beat up or killed.”
The proposed 60,000- to 80,000-square-foot center would house about 100 beds for male and female juveniles, function without barbed wire fencing and focus on counseling and education.
Security would still heavily supervise detained children day-to-day, Marino said.
Kids would be separated from each other in dormitory style living quarters. Two children of similar age would stay in each room, which would also have a bathroom. They will be locked down only at night.
“When it's time in the morning to get up, the doors get unlocked, and the kids go to counseling,” Marino said. “They go to the jobs that they're assigned.”
Marino blames Philadelphia-based drug gangs for the rise in juvenile crime. The gang use adolescents in Lycoming County for distribution, he said.
“The drug dealers of Philadelphia are afraid to come to Lycoming County, so they get these young kids and give them a gun and some drugs and some money and say, ‘Come to Lycoming County and sell these drugs and get the money back to me, and you'll make more money,’” Marino said. “We're dealing with Philadelphia but our concentration is on our juveniles in Lycoming County that need help or can't get their act together or else they will go to jail.”
The county’s current 20-bed facility is rundown, Marino said. The county is forced to house older adolescents with younger ones.
“I don't like that situation either, because the older juvenile can have a negative influence on the (younger) ones that are in the system,” he said.
Marino also blames the amount of delinquency on the lack of guardian supervision.
“These kids are not getting any supervision at home. Much of the time the father has gone, or fathers have gone, the mother is trying to raise five, six or seven kids. Usually, the person that really is raising the kids, to the best of their ability, is the grandmother,” he said.
Marino wants to add parental accountability as well as building a new center.
“We've got to turn this system around. If we do not turn this system around now, if we do not effectively make parents responsible for what their kids do, then I'm afraid we're not going to be able to change much,” he said. “That's why the juvenile facility that I'm proposing that we build will be built. There's no doubt about this.”
The county has not chosen a location. Marino wants a country setting, away from Williamsport.
“Once we get this facility built, it's going to be stated as our facility, it's definitely going to be here in Lycoming County,” Marino said.
Other counties have their own, Marino said, but none like what he’s proposing.
The county pays about $700 a day to send kids to other states’ facilities. Marino wants other counties and states using Lycoming County’s.
“We're sending kids to Texas, Ohio. We shouldn't have to do that, and once this facility gets up and running, and when other counties see what we have, more counties are going to send their troubled youth to our facility,” he said. “It will happen and they're going to have to pay like we have to pay to send ours somewhere.”
Lycoming County usually needs about 20 to 25 beds, Marino said. The extra beds will offset the county’s cost, he said.
Marino wants a publicly noticeable center.
“When somebody drives by, they're going to say, I wonder who is the millionaire that owns that place,” he said.
He wants security, on-call medical staff and, above all, counselors and educators.
“I want them there as well, because that's what these kids need. They need the experts in their field to get these kids on the right road,” he said. “It's even more these kids are going to be going to classes to learn how to read and write and learn mathematics. They're going to be taught how to be responsible for themselves and how to treat others, particularly how they want to be treated.”
Classrooms will be staffed by qualified educators across the curriculum.
“Unfortunately, many of these kids, they don't know how to add and subtract,” he said. “If we had the math teachers there, the writing teachers, the history teachers, we will be able to turn these kids around.”
Marino won’t tolerate abuse and vowed to prosecute abusive staff members, he said.
“I will watch that very, very closely and make sure the board watches it very, very closely to check the backgrounds of everyone that's coming in there to be part of the facility,” Marino said.
The center should have a central dining area where children can eat together under supervision, he said.
Children will have responsibilities like chores and jobs as they’re educated. Marino wants each child to receive a high school diploma, whether inside or outside the center.
“If they don't have their high school diploma, I want us to have the person or persons that can help these kids get their high school diploma, and I think that will be a start,” he said.
With access to Pennsylvania College of Technology and Lycoming College, kids can learn trades or professions, he said. A countryside center could allow for agricultural education. Marino said many children have never been out in the country.
“We'll build a barn on this complex, and we'll teach them how to plant some crops, and we'll teach them how to tend to some animals,” he said. “That'll have a positive impact on them as well, so they'll learn how to operate a tractor. They're going to see that this is a ‘whole new life for me. I never realized that I could do this, or be part of this.’”
He wants the center to exist separately from the county government but led by an authority board.
“I don't want commissioners in charge because it doesn't mean that a commissioner can't sit on the authority, but I want the people in the community to be board members - people that I know will take pride in their position and help offset costs,” he said.
The county commissioners agree about the need for a center, but said it’s too early to commit to one. Commissioner Mark Mussina said the county must study the center’s feasibility.
“There are multiple people that are involved and the district attorney's in favor of it. We are not against it, we're just in the information gathering, because when you're dealing with juveniles, there's so much more red tape than there is when you're dealing with adults,” he said.
Counties statewide struggle with finding beds for detained juveniles. For example, Lackawanna County, after closing its center years ago, sends children as far away as Ohio. Lackawanna is working on converting a block of its prison for juvenile detention.
Chairman Scott Metzger sees a statewide need for a new center.
“And the district attorney obviously knows that well too, and that's why they're in favor of it. We think if it works, there's a lot of benefits to it,” he said. “We're in very initial stages of how large, how many, who's going to manage it, what umbrella is going to be under.”
Lycoming County is seeking money for the feasibility study. Marino expects state and federal grants will fully fund the project with no cost to local taxpayers. The study will determine an actual estimated cost.
“I guarantee when other states see what we have done and where we are headed, maybe they're going to get some ideas and say, ‘We want to build what they have in Pennsylvania’ and come and visit us to see what our success is, because we're going to have success,” Marino said.
