The county’s 28-year-old juvenile justice center will finally get a facelift this year.
The county will spend nearly half-a-million dollars to repair aging exterior and interior infrastructure at the Dickinson Juvenile Justice Center, which houses minors from 10 counties who are arrested, jailed and rehabilitated for low-level crimes.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners approved $199,500 to repair the roof, $138,600 to repair control joints and replace bricks on two exterior walls, and $105,200 to repair the boiler.
All three projects have been long-needed, but the state of the building doesn’t impact operations — at least not significantly, said Kristi Bruther, director of the detention center.
Each project will replace original infrastructure on the building, built in 1992, Cartwright said. Exterior repairs to the roof and bricks are to fix existing problems. The roof leaks during heavy rains, and bricks are loose and falling off several sides of the building. Replacing the boiler is preventative, he said.
Employees often have to watch out for leaks and dodge water buckets, Bruther said.
To counter broken bricks in the recreation area, employees have to make sure to pick up any fallen brick pieces before juveniles come outside for their daily recreation time, she said.
Each project is funded by the county’s General Obligation Bond for 2020, a loan county officials take out every year to fund various county projects.
New Tech Roofing and Sexton Mechanical are expected to complete the roof repairs and replace the boiler, respectively, said Dan Cartwright, the county’s project manager. Wells Masonry will start the brick work in about 30 days, he said.
Additional bids for justice center projects, including for masonry work on the remaining exterior walls, will be awarded at a future commissioner’s meeting.
All four prongs of the county’s juvenile justice system are housed together at the Dickinson center — the court, detention center, community corrections and probation. The center offers programs and services for juveniles serving sentences inside and outside the detention center with a focus on helping kids address their problems and get on the right path.
It is a regional center that serves 10 counties, including those surrounding Johnson County and some from far-flung areas of the state such as Scott and Tippecanoe counties, Bruther said.
The center on Friday was housing 21 juveniles from multiple counties. The average population in 2020 was 16, down three from the 2019 average, Bruther said.
The detention center has the capacity to serve up to 48 inmates, but the population generally hovers around 20, she said.
The center is staffed to serve up to 25 juveniles, delivering programs for both juveniles in detention and those serving other types of sentences.
