Allegheny County’s Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in 2023, in Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
A power struggle between Allegheny County Council and the executive is poised to end with a pact allowing private management, but with oversight by a new panel.
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Allegheny County could soon create a Juvenile Detention Board of Advisors to oversee its youth detention center, according to a consent order that settles a legal dispute around the controversial reopening of that facility earlier this year.
The board will regularly receive data from new Shuman Juvenile Detention Center operator Adelphoi Western Region about staffing, health care, “reportable incidents” and other crucial indicators of the facility’s safety and operations. The data will equip the board to serve in an “advisory and consultative” role under the terms of the agreement among Adelphoi, County Council and the county executive’s office.
The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by council last September against then-County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, whose administration signed a $73 million, five-year contract with Adelphoi, part of a group of Latrobe-based private youth detention nonprofits, to operate the facility. The lawsuit said council must vote to approve or deny the use of county property — a step legislators alleged the courts and executive branch ignored before announcing the deal with Adelphoi that month.
The agreement also resolves a countersuit Adelphoi filed against council in May, which sought damages for operational and reputational harm it said council inflicted on it while trying to kill the contract.
A spokesperson for new County Executive Sara Innamorato said her office is committed to working with council to keep young people “out of the juvenile justice system” and move them out of the county’s adult jail “to a facility designed to address their specific needs with the best rehabilitative care possible.” The board of advisors will play a key role in that process, she added.
Council Solicitor Frederick Frank didn’t respond to a request for comment before deadline. Council members are expected to vote to approve the settlement at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Karyn Pratt, Adelphoi’s vice president of marketing and strategy development, also didn’t respond to emailed questions, which asked how the nonprofit will comply with the terms of the agreement, including its data reporting requirements to the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, which will pass the information on to the board of advisors.
Under the terms of the agreement, Adelphoi must provide detailed information prior to board meetings about staffing, emergency preparedness, clinical equipment, medical and behavioral health care, educational services, admissions and discharges, demographics, length of stay and reason for admission, and incidents reportable under state law. It’s unknown if the group of nonprofits has experience reporting such data to advisory or oversight boards in other jurisdictions.
An expert, asked by PublicSource about the accountability provisions, suggested it’s important to clarify the board’s ability to act on the data Adelphoi provides.
“Who has the power to investigate that, to take action based on that, to remedy that? That’s what I would want to know,” said Sara Goodkind, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work whose research focuses on young people in systems.
She also asked what kind of demographic information the county and board will ask Adelphoi to provide, which isn’t specified in the language of the agreement, and noted that Black youth are far more likely to be incarcerated than white youth.
“Is it reporting on race and ethnicity? Are they reporting on gender?” she asked, emphasizing the importance of tracking those statistics “given the serious racial disproportionality and the systemic racism that’s led to [youth incarceration], not only in Allegheny County, but across the country.”
The board will be composed of 10 members: County Executive Sara Innamorato or her designee, County Controller Corey O’Connor or his designee and eight private citizens. Three of those private citizens will be appointed by Susan Evashevik DiLucente, president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and four will be appointed by Innamorato and subject to approval by County Council. The final member will be one of three people nominated by County Council and selected by Innamorato.
Under Fitzgerald, the county announced last September that it would reopen Shuman under Adelphoi management. The facility was previously operated by the county and closed in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked its license for multiple violations, including failing to provide some incarcerated children with their prescribed medications.
Under the terms of the contract, Adelphoi gets an average of $14 million a year — around 40% more than the county was allocating prior to the 2021 closure. Adelphoi can terminate the contract with 180 days notice, but until 2028 the county can only end the pact if the contractor violates it, or funding runs dry.
The announcement last year drew swift condemnation from youth advocates and some council members, who pointed to Adelphoi’s checkered track record in the state. A PublicSource investigation found two federal lawsuits alleging abuse and negligence in Adelphoi facilities; they were filed in Harrisburg and Philadelphia courts just days after the county signed its contract with the nonprofit.
Soon after she was elected in November, Innamorato called those lawsuits “deeply concerning” and said transparency in youth detention would be “a main priority for our administration.” Under the terms of the consent order, she must notify council by June 1, 2028 of her decision to either terminate or continue the county’s contract with Adelphoi.
Shuman reopened in July under Adelphoi management with an initial capacity of 12 children. Adelphoi Chief Executive Nancy Kukovich told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review at the time that capacity will increase to 60 children over 18 months.
Pratt didn’t answer a question about how many young people are currently being held at the facility.
Venuri Siriwardane is PublicSource’s health and mental health reporter. She can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @venuris.
Charlie Wolfson contributed.
This reporting has been made possible through the Staunton Farm Mental Health Reporting Fellowship and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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