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Director urges Bourbon County to re-engage with regional juvenile detention center amid low local bed use
Summary
Southeast Kansas Juvenile Detention Center director Michael Walden briefed commissioners on the center's history, the regional funding formula and concerns about low utilization and state placement practices; he urged Bourbon County representation at board meetings and said a proposal to use additional beds could generate local revenue.
Michael Walden, director of the Southeast Kansas Juvenile Detention Center (SEK JDC), told Bourbon County commissioners on June 23 that the detention center is a regional facility formed to meet federal and state juvenile detention standards and that sustained county engagement is needed to preserve local access and control.
Walden said the SEK JDC was constructed in 1994 after state planning and bond financing to meet the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (the JJDP Act) requirement that juveniles be housed "sight and sound" separate from adults. He described how the region moved from per-diem billing to a multi-factor funding formula that uses a four-year average of bed-days plus county population and valuation to set each county's share. Walden said that funding design recognizes that counties contribute different amounts…
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