Detention center set to stop holding other city’s juveniles
After 30-plus years, decision comes with little explanation
A juvenile detention center in Chesapeake will soon no longer take in minors from several cities and counties in the region that had been using the lock-up for decades.
Chesapeake Juvenile Services — which has held youth from other jurisdictions for more than 30 years — will soon hold minors from Chesapeake alone.
That’s led to a scramble in recent months as Portsmouth, Suffolk, Isle of Wight, Franklin and Southampton have had to find new spots to house young people charged with crimes. It wasn’t easy.
After being notified of the change three months ago, the cities and counties didn’t get their first local options: Sources said juvenile detention centers in Norfolk, Newport News and Virginia Beach all said they couldn’t take in the detained minors.
“That was a surprise to all of us, that none of them were willing to open their doors,” according to a state official with knowledge of the situation. “Their rationale was staffing — that they were shortstaffed and not able to take on new placements.”
Juvenile detention centers in
Virginia can hold minors from 11-17 on a wide range of offenses, pre-trial and for sentencing. Their focus is on juveniles 14 and older charged with more serious crimes.
The cities and counties relying on Chesapeake were notified Dec. 21 about a change effective Jan. 31 — only six weeks later.
But because of the difficulties in finding new spots, Chesapeake later extended the deadline to March 31. They later extended Portsmouth’s move to April 30.
Though Portsmouth had been under discussions with several facilities outside the region, city spokesman Peter Glagola said Thursday the city reached an agreement with Merrimac Center Juvenile Detention in James City County.
The 48-bed center on Merrimac Trail near Williamsburg will begin taking Portsmouth’s youth May 1.
Marilyn Brown, director of juvenile justice services for Chesterfield County, said the county’s juvenile detention center will hold juveniles from the fifth judicial district — Suffolk, Isle of Wight, Franklin and Southhampton — for the time being.
“We’ve just agreed to be good neighbors and help them as best we could,” Brown said. “There is not a written agreement. We’ve just agreed to help them until they figure out if this is working for them, because we’re pretty far away.”
A source said Suffolk also is in
discussions with Merrimac Center, though a city spokeswoman said no agreements have been reached.
Rehabilitation experts say close proximity to family members is crucial for successful integration back into families and society following time locked up.
On a good travel day with little bridge-tunnel traffic, it’s about a 45-minute haul from Portsmouth to James City County, and a 1 ½-hour drive from Suffolk to Chesterfield.
That compares with the 20-35 minutes it takes to get to the Chesapeake center from Portsmouth and Suffolk, respectively.
Though those distances aren’t ideal, they’re shorter than they could have been — given some of the recent discussions with facilities even farther out of the area.
According to Chesapeake’s website, its Juvenile Services division at 420 Albemarle Drive “is a regional facility” that serves Chesapeake as well as “Franklin, Portsmouth and Suffolk and the counties of Isle of Wight and Southampton.”
But that’s outdated: A city spokeswoman told The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press last week that Chesapeake Juvenile Services is “not a regional facility.”
Chesapeake City Manager Christopher M. Price notified the other localities of that decision in a Dec. 21 letter.
In those letters — obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act — Price said Chesapeake “is dedicated to providing quality, safe, and secure detention services to juveniles in our community and to supporting our youth with successful community integration.
“We are beginning a process to refocus on our core mission to provide the youth in our care with the skills and tools necessary to make better life decisions,” he wrote.
Price said the number of beds at the Chesapeake Juvenile Services will be reduced from 100 to 25 by July 1.
While new juveniles from “partnering cities and counties” won’t be accepted after Jan. 31, he wrote, those already there “will be allowed to remain for the duration of their agreedupon stay.” (That would mean until the conclusion of their pending court cases or sentences).
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” Price added. “We thank you in advance for your patience.”
Price wrote another series of letters Feb. 1 granting the localities a two-month extension so long as they agreed to certain terms.
That includes, among other things, that Portsmouth can’t have more than 11 juveniles in Chesapeake and that the other cities and counties are capped at 14 combined.
The localities also agreed to pay worker’s comp claims stemming from their youths’ actions and must “immediately remove a non-Chesapeake resident who causes physical injury” to a detention center youth or staffer.
Though Chesapeake Juvenile Services once had 100 beds, the city says it’s down to 36 minors now, on its way to 25. The facility has 55 full-time and part-time workers.
The city didn’t shed much light on the reason for its decision.
Chesapeake city spokeswoman Elizabeth Vaughn wrote in an email to The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press that “the 25-bed model better meets community needs.”
But Price did not return a call to talk about the matter, with Vaughn saying “the city manager is not available to discuss this by phone” — and that no one else could, either.
The city also declined to answer a series of follow-up questions about the issue last week.
The city would not explain, for example, how a drastically reduced number of beds “better meets the community’s needs.”
The city also would not say who made the decision to stop taking juveniles from outside of Chesapeake and to stop serving as a regional facility.
The city, moreover, would not say how they would use the extra space freed up by the reduced bedding spots.
And while Vaughn told The Pilot and Daily Press the facility will have “a licensed capacity of 25 juveniles after July 1, she would not say who issued that license or set that number.
“At this time, the City has no further statement nor information to provide you on this topic,” city spokesman Heath Covey wrote in an email.