Milwaukee County leaders hold groundbreaking for new secure residential center for youth

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – An addition is in the works at the Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center, meant to provide a secure treatment space for youth offenders from Milwaukee that is close to home.

Milwaukee County leaders held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the new Milwaukee County Center for Youth, a secure residential care center on Watertown Plank Road.

"This really is an opportunity to do things differently in the youth justice system," said Kelly Pethke, administrator for Milwaukee County Youth and Family Services.

It has been in the works since state Legislature passed Act 185 in 2018, providing grants for communities to build residential facilities and eventually close the troubled Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth correctional centers.

"Right now, we're paying $450,000 per youth, per year, to incarcerate them, to send them to Lincoln Hills," said Shakita LaGrant-McClain, executive director of Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services. "If we invest that differently, in our education, in our prevention, in our intervention, you will see a change in our community."

Officials said this will help children from Milwaukee in Milwaukee, rather than sending them to youth prisons more than three hours away.

"Being able to bring the individualized services that focus on the kids, but also the families and community, and not look at the worst thing they did, but who they can become," Pethke explained.

The facility will serve up two 32 children at a time, with mental health support, treatment services, and education, while helping them get back into the community safely.

"We can provide services with providers who are right in the community with our youth, so when they go back into the community, we can wrap services around them," LaGrant-McClain said. "We can meet them where they are."

Ideally, the facility will help reduce the number of young people who need to be in a secure setting.

"What we want for these kids is that they're able to leave this program in a better space than what they came," Pethke said.

Construction is set to be completed next year, and the facility is expected to open by 2026.