Council OKs New Therapeutic Facility
Oct 2, 2009, Louisiana Models for Change
The St. Landry Parish Council voted 12-1 Thursday, October 1, to allow the parish to become home to a new therapeutic juvenile center. The $20 million facility will be constructed near Opelousas, Louisiana, providing care for about 60 juvenile offenders in a therapeutic setting.
Dr. Mary Livers, deputy secretary of the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice testified before the council that her department will build and maintain the facility, and said work should begin as soon as a site location is chosen.
"We hope to open in 2013, if all goes well," Livers said.
The Acadiana Center for Youth, as it will be named, would be modeled after Missouri’s therapeutic juvenile justice system, billed as the finest in the nation. The state has long been working toward a therapeutic model, which emphasizes rehabilitation in a regionalized setting. The youth who go through the center will be screened before placement in order to provide greatest benefit.
The juvenile center project is expected to bring an estimated $9 million annually to the parish and would employ about 90 people, Parish President Don Menard said. He also spoke about the promise of the new center to reform adjudicated youth for a better future, likening it to a mini-college campus that stresses education and learning.
“A juvenile will be able to walk out of there with a new direction in life,” Menard said. “It’s not a detention center where you lock them up and wait until their time is up and release them. This is about changing lifestyles.”
Menard also revealed his ongoing negotiations with a local landowner to develop a final site location. Once those negotiations are complete, the St. Landry council will be the first group informed of the location.
The new center, which is expected to be a model for the entire state, moves away from the traditional correctional, custodial model and toward a therapeutic, child-centered environment. The idea is to take children who have started out in life in the wrong direction and give them a chance to change.
Livers said the youths, from 12 to 21, who are admitted into the facility will be carefully screened to accept only those who might benefit.
"This is an opportunity to take youth who are not yet deep in the system. This is our last chance to make an impact," she said. "This is all about helping the kids.”
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