In August 2021, the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Allegheny County closed its doors.
It wasn’t just that the county decided to get out of the business of detaining young people who are accused or adjudicated of crimes. The closure was not the county’s idea. It came after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked Shuman’s license over “gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct.”
The county still had kids to detain; it just wasn’t allowed to do so.
For two years, that has meant minors have been held in other places — including the Allegheny County Jail, which had 20 juveniles in custody as of Friday.
That will start to change with a new plan that will reopen Shuman with different management.
On Friday, the county court system announced that Adelphoi, a Latrobe nonprofit that provides group homes and treatment and education services in four states, would take over operations at Shuman.
Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, 64 have some kind of contract with Adelphoi. It operates 21 residential facilities and was named the Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission residential program of the year in 2022 for its male secure program.
This is a positive step after two years in limbo. It speaks of consistency and direction. It will start with 12 juveniles, but there are plans to scale up to a 60-bed capacity.
However, it is incumbent on the county to stay involved and aware. The kind of problems — including neglect and overdoses — that prompted Shuman to lose its license cannot be repeated.
Although Adelphoi has a much different history than Shuman, the county cannot just sign a contract and wash its hands. The past two years of juvenile crime show how important a consistent and competent structure is to address the issue.
The new program is expected to open in January after physical renovations to the facility that are expected to cost about $4.7 million.
That means Allegheny County government has four months to work on how it will hold itself responsible for what happens at Shuman going forward — especially because it seems there was so little responsibility taken for what happened in the past.