Local at-risk youngsters will benefit
from Staunton center's expansion
Troubled boys and girls aged 12 to 17 will soon have a nearby treatment option.
The Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in Staunton will break ground on an expansion within 30 days, and expects to expand its services by Sept. 1. With the expansion, the center will serve as a holding place for young people whose problems don’t require incarceration.
That could include young people waiting to enter the foster care system or who need to be held in a secure environment while Social Services figures out the next step. Now, the center serves only as a detention center for adolescents who are ordered incarcerated.
The center hosts youths from Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista, as well as Augusta County, Harrisonburg, Staunton and Waynesboro.
Tim Smith, superintendent of the center, says that a stay could last from just a few days to two months.
The new services and expanded facility will allow youngsters to stay in the area while authorities decide what placement each needs, without sending him or her to facilities out of the area to address psychological issues. The new program will have less security than the existing center.
Governments in the areas served by the facility had to approve the plans before Smith and other juvenile center associates could move ahead.
Rockbridge County, Lexington, and Buena Vista are also served by the Natural Bridge Juvenile Correctional Center. That center hosts young men aged 14 to 20, but offers no program similar to the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center.
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Phylissa
Mitchell
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Pamela Lucke
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd