Juvenile center cites chronic staffing shortages, proposes institutional license and reports rising out‑of‑county revenue

The Juvenile Justice Center director told the committee on July 16 that staffing shortages continue to constrain operations and shape program decisions, even as the center pursues expanded contracted beds for other counties.

The director said the county created 13 assistant supervisor positions (converted from 14 youth-care-worker slots) and has kept the assistant-supervisor posts consistently filled, but that frontline youth-care-worker positions remain underfilled: the center currently has about 20 youth-care workers on staff of an authorized 43. “We currently have 17 kids in our detention unit, and out of those 17, 9 of them are from out of county,” the director said.

Nut graf: to address shifting needs, the center plans to decrease its boys community-based license from 24 beds to 12 and apply for an additional 12‑bed institutional license focused on juveniles with more severe charges, creating an institutional step between detention and community placement. The director described the change as a way to keep higher‑security youths closer to family and services while permitting transition to community beds if appropriate.

The juvenile center also reported nine contracted, guaranteed beds with other counties (three Lehigh, three Monroe, two Lackawanna and one Pike) that produce county revenue. The director said out‑of‑county revenue rose from about $509,000 in 2023 to just under $1 million in 2024, and that current receipts total $646,380 year to date with a projection of $1.4 million from contracted beds.

Facility upgrades and operations: the center completed a control center modernization in early June, replacing obsolete PLCs and moving from analog to digital control systems to enable future camera additions. Staff said existing cameras remain obsolete and recommended new cameras tied to the updated PLC system.

Discussion vs. decisions: the center presented its staffing metrics, the rationale for proposed licensure changes and revenue figures. The shift in licensure is a proposal and will require state licensing approvals; the committee did not take a formal vote on licensure during the meeting. The center asked county council support for pay increases, new cameras and making current contracted case managers county positions as retention measures.

Ending: officials flagged ongoing implementation risks if staffing and clinical capacity do not improve. The director noted the county still sometimes turns away two to three juvenile placements per day for safety or capacity reasons and said certain higher‑risk youths remain difficult to place elsewhere in the commonwealth.