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County says Milwaukee County Center for Youth SRC on track for fall occupancy; staff detail current secure commitments and aftercare
Summary
CYFS updated the committee on secure residential care: a 32‑bed Milwaukee County Center for Youth is under renovation with owner occupancy targeted for Oct. 31 and service in Q1 2026. Officials reported about 20 youths committed to juvenile corrections so far in 2025 and 27 youth in county‑supervised aftercare.
Kelly Pethke, administrator for Children, Youth and Family Services, presented the committee with a quarterly update on Milwaukee County's secure residential care center (SRC), which the department is calling the Milwaukee County Center for Youth.
Pethke said the Center is a 32‑bed secure facility built by renovating and expanding Bellard Phillips Youth Detention Center; four beds are allocated for girls but may be used for boys if not needed. She told the committee the county is scheduled to take owner occupancy around Oct. 31, 2025, and expect to begin serving youth in the first quarter of 2026. A program manager for the Center has been hired and is working with detention and CYFS staff to develop programming.
Pethke reported that, at the time the written report was prepared, 18 youth had been court‑ordered to the state Division of Juvenile Corrections; two additional commitments arrived after the report was written, bringing the 2025 total to 20 youth. She said the county also supervises youth released from secure placements through aftercare and that the aftercare caseload stood at 27 youth at the time of the meeting.
Pethke highlighted a long‑term decline in the average daily population in secure correctional placements since 2015 and framed the SRC as part of the county's goal to serve more youth locally and reinvest savings into community‑based programs.
Committee members asked whether opening the county SRC would eliminate commitments to Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. Pethke said the county expected to continue having some youth at those state‑run facilities because Milwaukee operates a local accountability program (MCAP) that will become the SRC, and because the state is also opening a Type 1 facility in Milwaukee; placement choices will depend on timing, capacity and the type of court order. On costs, Pethke said Milwaukee County pays the DJC secure placement daily rate for youth on regular Department of Corrections (DOC) orders and cited a current DJC daily rate of about $1,268 per day for secure placements; she emphasized the county does not set those state rates.
Pethke also noted another CRC (secure residential care) in Racine is scheduled to open; once both facilities are open they will be the two CRCs serving the state. She emphasized the local SRC is intended to be more trauma‑informed and less institutional in design while retaining the security required by statute.
Why it matters: The SRC is an implementation step following 2017 Wisconsin Act 185 and commitments with the state Division of Juvenile Corrections. The facility will change where and how Milwaukee County youth under juvenile correctional orders are housed and supervised and affects county operational, programming and budget planning.
