Allentown — A delegation of County Administrators, Commissioners, and Common Pleas Court Judges from Dauphin, Lehigh, and Berks Counties cooperatively appealed to legislators from those three counties in Harrisburg on Monday, March 24, 2025. The delegation asked the Dauphin, Lehigh, and Berks legislators to allocate $6.3 Million for each of the three counties the funds to launch the Regional Youth Detention Center and Shelter that will be located in the renovated former Berks County Youth Detention Center, 1261 County Welfare Road, Leesport.
The group of juvenile justice experts including Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas President Judge J. Brian Johnson, Berks County Judge Scott Lash, Dauphin County Judge Royce Morris, Berks District Attorney John Adams, Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick, Lehigh County Chief Probation Officer Kevin Miller, and Dauphin County Chief Probation Officer Chad Libby joined Berks County Chief Operations Officer Kevin Barnhardt, Berks County Deputy Chief Operations Officer Larry Medaglia, and Berks County Commissioner Dante Santoni, Jr. in explaining the crisis in juvenile detention beds in Pennsylvania to the collected state legislators.
“It’s really hard to get regional cooperation among counties, and not only cooperation but bipartisan agreement.” Commissioner Santoni said. “This really shows how important this endeavor is to our three counties and the broader region.”
“The juvenile justice system is a victim of its own success. The focus on balanced and restorative justice and the use of evidence-based practices reduced the number of beds necessary for detention,” said Judge Johnson. “Unfortunately, there is still a critical need for detention beds given the violent offenses committed by juveniles.”
A successful 20-year effort by the counties to reduce the number of children who must be detained has resulted in a shortage of detention beds needed for the remaining children who must be detained because they are dangerous to themselves and to others. The shortage of available beds is even more acute due to the increasing rate and seriousness of juvenile crime. Berks District Attorney John Adams stated violent offenses committed by juveniles involving a firearm has increased at an alarming rate in recent years. “The sad reality is they don’t comprehend the consequences of pulling that trigger,” Adams said.
Counties are frequently forced to search for beds in facilities in other counties, including Northampton, Bucks, Chester, or Montgomery County, and, at times, in other states. These facilities often refuse out-of-county juveniles, forcing Berks County and others to release youth, who should otherwise be detained, into the community with nothing more than electronic monitoring. A shortage of State Detention Center beds also contributes to the county-level detention bed shortage and threatens public safety.
Berks, Dauphin and Lehigh Counties are working to address the detention bed crisis by forming a regional partnership to open a regional detention center that would serve these counties and potentially open new and existing beds to other counties. By refurbishing and renovating the Regional Youth
Detention Center and Shelter, these counties intend to open a properly staffed program to allow for 30 beds divided evenly between these counties. The existing building previously served as a functioning detention center from 1995 to 2012.
“It is the right thing to do,” Santoni said. “If our communities are unsafe, no one is going to want to live there; no one is going to want to come to visit us there; no one is going to want to create a business there. If that happens, our communities fall apart; so, we need to keep them safe.”
Information provided to TVL by:
County of Lehigh
www.lehighcounty.org
