OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The Douglas County Youth Center is set to open downtown next year but some county commissioners are already worried it will immediately fill up.
A report presented at the Douglas County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday showed that 88 children were in the current facility in midtown Omaha in November. That is an issue as the new facility only has the capacity for 64 juveniles.
“We have a practical problem right now,” said Commissioner Mike Friend.
The downtown facility is set to open in June and the county will take a phase-in approach, slowly placing more youths downtown. The new detention center is expected to be fully open in about one year.
“What are we going to do to make this work, particularly for the youth involved," said Commissioner Jim Cavanaugh.
Commissioner Friend suggested the county begin looking into keeping two facilities open, the new one and the old one, until they figure out a larger solution.
Commissioner Chris Rodgers, a vocal proponent of placing the youth center downtown, argued the capacity is largely out of the county’s hands. Law enforcement arrests the juvenile, judges sentence, and the probation office is involved throughout the process.
“Today is the first point of notice and alarm saying to all these other parts of the system. You’ve got a year to get yourself together.”
Rodgers said the county will have no choice but to find other solutions with the probation office if the new facility reaches capacity. That could mean more funding for programming to keep the kids out of the justice system in the future.
Commissioner Mary Ann Borgeson, another commissioner who took heat for placing the new detention center downtown, pointed at guns as one of the reasons the numbers have been higher since COVID.
The rates of youths in Douglas County arrested with a gun are rising and Borgeson, a Republican, said the community needs to have a tough conversation on the issue or the problem won’t get better.
“We're going to be sitting here for another 10 years and barking the same bark,” said Borgeson.
The population has actually decreased since 2019. In fact, annual admissions to the youth center were around 700 juveniles a year. That compares to over 1,700 juveniles in 2007.
But the total number of juveniles is already higher in 2022 than in 2021.
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