Years of Lackawanna County deputy sheriffs transporting local juveniles accused or convicted of crimes to detention centers as far as Ohio should end next year.
The county commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to join a four-county consortium that will house juveniles at a Berks County center known as the Southeast Youth Detention Agency.
The center, run by Berks County in Bern Twp., outside Reading, will house up to 40 juveniles with up to 10 beds each reserved for Lackawanna, Berks, Dauphin and Lehigh counties. The center will reserve another 16 beds as shelter for unhoused children, a Berks county official said.
“This is a monumental day in juvenile justice here in Lackawanna County,” Judge Frank Ruggiero, who oversees juvenile court hearings told the commissioners.
When and how much
The center is tentatively scheduled to open in July 2027. The commissioners approved an agreement to send juveniles there until at least Dec. 31, 2047. A juvenile is someone 17 years old or younger.
The county expects to spend about $2.6 million the first year, slightly more than the $2.3 million in projected spending this year, according to a slide presentation by county chief financial officer David Bulzoni.
A troubled history
For years, Lackawanna County operated a juvenile detention center for boys only on North Washington Avenue in Scranton across from the Scranton Cultural Center at Masonic Temple. The center, which had room for eight, closed in 2018 when the county’s lease with Lackawanna College expired.
Instead of building a new center or finding a new permanent space, the county began shipping detained juveniles to centers in other counties, chief of staff Brian Jeffers said during the meeting.
“I argued against it, but there really wasn't an alternative at the time, and it was felt that there was enough bed space throughout the commonwealth that they can quote, unquote, farm the juvenile detention out,” said Jeffers, who twice served as the detention center’s interim director. “It worked very briefly in 2017, (20)18 and (20)19, and then, like everybody else in this commonwealth and across the country, the pandemic hit and things turned.”
Many centers closed as staff retired or lacked enough juveniles to house, creating a statewide shortage of beds. Between 2006 and 2021,15 detention centers closed, according to data provided at the meeting. By 2023, only 13 remained.
“And this crisis is not unique to Pennsylvania,” Bulzoni said. “Low staffing levels are not only a recurring theme in this state, but have also been issues in the states of Illinois, Maryland, New York, Carolina, Texas and elsewhere.”
The current solution
Lackawanna County now sends juveniles to centers in Northampton, Chester and Bucks in eastern Pennsylvania, Centre in the middle of the state, Westmoreland and Erie counties in the west and Jefferson County, Ohio, home of Steubenville, and just across the western border, county Sheriff Mark McAndrew said.
McAndrew favors the center because his deputies must stay overnight when transporting to the most distant centers such as in Ohio or western Pennsylvania.
Last year, sheriff deputies made 125 trips transporting juveniles, McAndrew said. At the moment, the county only has two juveniles in detention, Jeffers said.
As “bed space became squeezed” in 2022 and 2023, the county began looking for “an alternative,” Jeffers said.
Why not here?
County officials considered opening new housing for juveniles in an unused wing of the county prison.
They eventually rejected that idea.
“The problem with that was that it was only going to be males,” Jeffers said after the meeting.
County officials felt that risked a federal discrimination lawsuit, he said.
“But more importantly, the state was not really inclined and happy with the situation where we were housing youths inside an adult facility, and that they could come in contact with these adults,” he said. “Now, we would do everything we possibly could to make sure that they did not come in contact with adults out there, but there's no guarantee, and therefore, if they do, it's a violation of the law, and we could be held up accountable for it.”
State officials suggested a regional approach and nudged local officials toward Berks County, Jeffers said.
Same boat for other counties
Facing the same problem, Berks, Dauphin and Lehigh counties began seeking solutions to house juveniles in 2024.They’re asking the state to contribute money to reopening a former juvenile detention center – the Berks Youth Center - that closed in 2012, The Reading Eagle newspaper reported last year.
Berks County plans to sell about $19 million in bonds to raise money for renovations, according to a slide presentation at the meeting.
Jeffers said the January 2024 shooting of Scranton Police Detective Kyle Gilmartin, which involved young suspects, highlighted the need to renew a search for housing.
“And after numerous conversations with them (Berks County officials) in May and June of last year, it was obvious that we should join up with them,” Jeffers said.
Top officials favor center
Lackawanna County President Judge James Gibbons, who served on a state panel that review juvenile justice after the Luzerne County “Kids for Cash” scandal, said managing accused juveniles has vexed the county Prison Board for years.
Gibbons urged approval.
“I think it's going to be a good thing for our system, for our county, and for the young people who find themselves involved in the system,” he said.
Ruggiero said the center will do more than house accused juveniles the way current centers do.
“That's great for the detention component, but what it does not address is the treatment component, which is really the more important component,” he said. “And what these folks in Berks County have done ... - and the idea is to bring it all into one facility - is quite amazing.”
The money
Bulzoni ran through the financial costs in detail. In 2025, the county almost three what it spent in 2023 on juvenile detention - $1.3 million vs. $435,000 - with a 44% increase in days juveniles spent in detention and a 29% increase in “bed days.” A bed day equals one day for each day one juvenile is housed.
The state reimburses half the cost of housing a juvenile each day. The state will not reimburse for any of the 10 beds that remain unused on any day.
“While placing juveniles in a family-like setting has been a goal, those that pose a safety risk require an institutional setting,” Bulzoni said. “If placement needs are beyond what a residential facility can accommodate, and there are not sufficient detention facilities, costs are going to increase, and it further strains an already strained system. The cost factor is really subject to the law of supply and demand.”
Based on cost increases since 2023, Bulzoni projected the county cost could rise to more than $4 million by 2027, making a joint venture a good value, he said.
Building its own center would also cost the county a lot more, he said.
“This proposal is extremely well thought out, and it's an extremely well-planned alternative for the county to consider,” Bulzoni said of the Berks plan.
District Attorney Brian Gallagher called the center “a critical” need. School superintendents often call wondering why a juvenile accused of a robbery or non-armed violence is back in school.
“I can't tell you the amount of times where we've had someone pleading guilty to a violent crime in juvenile court, or who was arrested on a Friday night and on Monday morning, they're in school with an ankle bracelet (for tracking) because there's no detention beds,” he said.
Berks officials weigh in
Berks County Chief Operating Officer Kevin Barnhart told the commissioners the county plans to ask for state money again soon.
“It's something that's sorely needed in all of our communities,” he said of juvenile housing.
Barnhart said Berks sought to team up with counties that need juvenile housing because neighboring counties such as Schuylkill and Lebanon have too few juvenile detainees to contribute meaningfully.
After the meeting, Barnhart said Berks closed its center, which had 72 beds, because it averaged only eight occupants a day and the county was losing more than $3 million a year.
Berks began sending juveniles to the Abraxas Academy, but that center has lost its full state license due to irregularities.
In January, the state Department of Human Services revoked the center’s certificate of compliance because of a failure to report suspected child abuse, WFMZ-TV reported.
“We are not planning on opening 72 beds. Just want to recognize that the goal is to open up 40 beds and have 10 beds set aside for each county,” he said.
Each county can appoint three people to a board that will manage the center, Barnhart said.
“We're recommending someone in finance, someone in JPO (juvenile probation office) and someone in operations,” he said. “This is a working group of people that want what's in the best interest of these juveniles in these facilities.”
The center will include programming aimed at detainees plus mental, medical and dental health treatment, he said.
“All those good things that these kids sorely lack and need,” he said.
Berks deputy chief operations officer Larry Medaglia said county employees will staff the center.
“And we think that's important for a number of reasons, most of which is accountability,” Medaglia said. “We'll be able to hold them accountable as county employees, and they'll be paid a better wage. We look to be able to hire good professional staffing.”
A woman who directs the county’s current shelter will run the center.
“She’s got 25 years plus experience in the detention and shelter business, so she's been at it for a long time,” Medaglia said. “The mental health component is something that everybody is fully aware of, but I think it's noteworthy that we will have people on site we have in our shelter currently, and it would be the same intention in our detention facility to have the licensed social workers available for the kids. In addition, we have daily availability to counseling services.”
Commissioners all in
Commissioner Bill Gaughan said he visited Berks County last summer and left impressed with the county’s operation.
“When I pulled up to the facility, honestly, I thought to build something like that today from scratch would be simply unaffordable. And then when you go in and you hear about the programming and everything else that you have in mind, it truly is impressive,” he said. “When I go down to the county commissioner association meetings, every commissioner I run into brings this up in some form or fashion. So, this regional initiative offers a smarter path forward, instead of competing for scarce beds across the state, sometimes hundreds of miles away from families and core.”
Commissioner Chris Chermak said the center ranks as important “with crime and juvenile crime on the rise, and gun violence and gang violence that we're dealing with here.”
“It's just a never-ending battle. So hopefully, hopefully this is going to make a big difference moving forward,” he said.
Commissioner Thom Welby said the center will curb the practice of releasing a juvenile accused of a violent crime.
“And we're 100% in support of this and hope that the community sees the light in this and how ... the families will have closer access to their family members and know that they're going to have positive forces behind them to point them in the right direction,” Welby said.
