By Guy Page
The Vermont Department of Children is moving away from siting a secure juvenile detention and treatment facility in the rural Orange County town of Newbury and is now looking at South Burlington and Vergennes as possible sites for a 15-bed replacement for the shuttered Woodside facility.
DCF officials testified in Senate Judiciary Wednesday, February 7 about the need for more staff to assist ‘justice involved’ youth. Best practices suggest one worker for every 12 families of JI youth. At present DCF has one case worker for 15.7 families. Furthermore the lack of a secure facility means often-violent children are “staffed” by DCF workers in unsecure settings – including foster care, unsecure youth facilities, emergency rooms and hotels.
After the hearing VDC asked DCF Commissioner Chris Winters about the ongoing search for a permanent, secure, staffed facility. Newbury, ground zero for an intense battle between the State of Vermont and local officials on the siting of a secure ‘group home for JI youth, is now being considered for other uses, Winters said. He identified the two new sites under consideration as being located in South Burlington and Vergennes.
Vergennes was long the home of the state’s juvenile delinquent facility, morphing over the years into a technical education training facility. It is unclear if this site is the Vergennes location on DCF’s radar. South Burlington is home to the state’s women’s prison.