DuPage’s youth home debate continues
If DuPage County wants to keep its youth home and restore the facility’s award-winning reputation, officials must raise at least $630,000 in additional funding to pay for it, according to the county’s chief judge.
And while DuPage Chief Judge Stephen Culliton isn’t taking a position on what should happen to the DuPage County Juvenile Detention Center, others are lobbying against a possible closure of the Wheaton facility.
“Although we understand the financial impact on the county,” DuPage State’s Attorney Bob Berlin said, “our position is that if there’s a way to keep it open, they should keep it open.”
Members of the county board’s finance committee next week are expected to discuss a proposal to close DuPage’s youth home and transfer detainees to a facility in Kane County.
Talks between Kane and DuPage counties are ongoing, and no final decisions have been made. If the deal is approved, it could save DuPage an estimated $400,000 a year.
Supporters of the outsourcing proposal say DuPage’s youth home has been underused in recent years. The center, built in the mid-1990s to house 90 youths, has an average daily population of about 24.
But on Tuesday, Berlin joined a list of judges and law enforcement officials who say it would be better to set aside money in the 2012 budget to keep the DuPage facility open.
“We’ve made tremendous progress with our juveniles in this county,” Berlin said. “We have a great juvenile justice system. We’re recognized leaders.
“If there’s a way to make cuts elsewhere and use that money to keep it (the youth home) open, I think that’s the way to go,” he said.
County board member Robert Larsen said it’s “understandable” that there are those who don’t want change.
“But if the answer is always ‘no,’ we’re just going to continue to spiral costs out of control,” said Larsen, who supports partnering with Kane.
The youth home is facing a projected $400,000 shortfall in its operating budget for next year. Coming up with that amount would maintain the facility’s “bare-bones” operation, officials said.
Judge Culliton said the youth home had more money in its budget and a much larger staff the last time it won an award in 2006.
“Currently, we are operating at bare minimum staffing ratios,” Culliton said. “And we are only capable of offering limited mental health and nursing services.”
In order to restore the youth home’s services to the award-winning levels of the past, Culliton said that at least $630,000 would be needed to hire more detention officers, social workers and nurses — positions that previously were eliminated.
Meanwhile, DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin said Kane has a quality facility in St. Charles. He said DuPage could fulfill a “very important mission” of helping young people by utilizing the services in Kane.
“They may be able to provide more services, given that they haven’t had to go through the reductions over the years,” Cronin said. “They’re fully funded. They’ve got programs and services that offer a wide variety of different interventions and different counseling.”
Still, county board member Jim Zay says he wants the DuPage youth home to stay open.
“These are our kids,” Zay said. “They are from our county. We shouldn’t push the responsibility off on somebody else.”