Construction of “Phase One” of the Minnehaha County Juvenile Justice Center is nearing completion. The $50 million project is replacing the current Juvenile Detention Center.
The new Juvenile Justice Center, or JJC, is supposed to meet the county’s needs for the next 30 years. The current facility has a 40-bed maximum and serves 30 youth daily. The JJC increases bed capacity to 64 and more than doubles the square-footage of the center.
A lot of the new housing units have rooms for eight children. Jamie Gravett, the
Director of the existing Juvenile Detention Center, said that's to accommodate the Prison Rape Elimination Act ratio of one staff for every one inmate for non-sleeping hours.
The facility has an impact aside from Minnehaha County. The current detention center holds kids from 18 total counties and Pipestone, MN. The facility also houses youth for the Department of Corrections while they find placement.
Jamie Gravett is Director of the existing Juvenile Detention Center. He said in addition to more beds, the space is going to promote a safer environment for youth.
“You know, believe it or not, if I have two kids that come in that were shooting at each other, right now I have to put them in the same hallway," Gravett said. "Now, I can put one on that half of the building and one on that half of the building and they’ll never see each other.”
The facility includes a garage for intake. At the current facility, police bring youth to
the main entrance to be dropped off, something Gravett called a risk for youth fleeing from police. He added that dropping juveniles off at the main entrance puts them "on display" for anyone driving by on the interstate to see. The garage, however, offers a little more confidentiality, something Gravett said is important for juveniles.
"This has been a dream of ours for a long time, so we're excited about having a garage," he said.
Another safety feature added are three padded cells. That helps prevent suicidal and other at-risk juveniles from harming themselves. Currently, JJC staff have to place youth into a restraint chair to protect from self-harm.
Gravett said the new cells create the opportunity to keep both parties out of harm's way.
“I think it’s great, because I have scars on my body from having to deal with that. I’ve seen my staff get concussions quite frequently," Gravett said. "I’ve seen kids get hurt accidentally while we’re trying to deal with them. So, if we can do anything to prevent having to go hands-on, I’m all for it.”
The next phase includes transferring operations to the new building. Once juvenile detainees are fully transferred, the existing center will be demolished. In its place, a new juvenile courtroom and support offices are being built.
Gravett said that’s going to streamline the JDC’s operations.
“It reduces the number of transports that we have to do downtown for court. Transporting can be very dangerous for the staff and the youth," Gravett said. "We could get in a car accident, someone could find out where we’re at and come and try and attack us, so we want to try and eliminate as many transports as we can. And it’s just, it’s good. Probation’s here, they can go see their kids as they need to, the judge is here, we can have all the court in one spot.”
He said that’s important.
“Realistically, most of our kids are decent kids. They just caught up in something really stupid," Gravett said. "And now, they’re going to go through the court system and they’re gonna get the help they need to get back on track.”
The next phase is set to begin this fall and wrap up next Winter.
