WILLIAMSPORT, LYCOMING COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Lycoming County officials today unveiled plans for a Juvenile Justice Center.
District Attorney Tom Marino is spearheading the project which he described as much needs and long overdue.
The proposed 124-bed residential placement facility will offer full rehab and secure treatment for boys and girls on a 67-acre wooded rural site.
It will include its own courtroom and law offices and complete counseling for juveniles who run in trouble with the law.
The center would be the only one of its kind in Central Pennsylvania.
It's being called a much needed and long overdue facility in central Pennsylvania, but now the wheels are in motion to make it a reality. The Lycoming County District Attorney unveiled plans for a 60 million dollar juvenile justice center.
28/22 News I-team reporter Andy Mehalshick is working the story and joins us live in studio.
Law enforcement officials from across the state will tell you that there is a critical need for juvenile detention and treatment services.
This proposed juvenile justice center would address some of that need.
"It's desperately needed. We don't even have a facility here that would hold seven or eight kids," voiced Lycoming County District Attorney Tom Marino.
That will change if a plan proposed by Lycoming County District Attorney Tom Marino becomes a reality.
It would be a 150 plus bed residential juvenile placement facility with full rehab and a secure treatment facility for boys and girls.
"You hear me say we're going to have counselors, and we're going to have people experienced in doing this work. We're going to have psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, things that they really need to get their acts together," explained Marino.
Marino unveiled the project friday along with other stakeholders and organizers of that effort.
"We have to change our attitude about what we do with juveniles, and not just throwing them in a mini-prison or a lockdown facility with nothing addressing their mental health needs," voiced Marino.
The center would be built on a 67 acre parcel of land in a rural wooded area of the county. It could be used by any county in our region and beyond, many of which are facing the same juvenile detention crisis.
"There's no other facility like this in the country that I know of after all the research I've done," said Marino.
The new facility would be a benefit for taxpayers so says Lycoming County Commissioner Marc Sortman.
"I think the value for Lycoming County for the taxpayers side is the cost that it takes to transport. We are transporting juvenile delinquents, at this point, out to Ohio, out to Pittsburgh, even further for them to have stay. Then we're bringing them back every time they have a court hearing," explained Sortman.
There are still a lot of moving parts such as funding. D.A. Tom Marino says he has even reached out to Elon Musk to see if he would help fund the project. Marino has a contact who is close to one of the world's richest men, if not the richest man in the world.
