more bad gov. management of resources

[Rosie the Riveter]

Tax dollars spent to expand a detention center for children that is mostly empty and likely to stay that way. Who in their right mind would decide to spend millions to expand a facility that did not need to be expanded?  Only the government!


NH eyes adding inmates at YDC
By MARK HAYWARD
Union Leader Staff
20 hours, 11 minutes ago


Manchester ? The director of the Youth Development Center said he has contacted his counterparts in other New England states to see whether they are interested in housing some of their juvenile inmates at the Manchester facility.

The reason: the new, 144-bed, architecturally secure YDC facility is nearly one-third empty, and officials don't see that changing anytime soon.

Rod Forey, the director of Juvenile Justice Services for the state, said he wrote letters to directors after Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen asked him to explore the possibility of raising revenue through out-of-state placements.

Last year, the YDC hosted a Vermont girl for nine months, charging her state $360 for each day she stayed at the YDC, Forey said. The rate covers board, education and medical care.

Stephen said the recommendation for out-of-state placements at the YDC came from a task force that reviewed the property and issued a report in January. He stressed that nothing has been finalized.

"I think we should look at it, but I want to know how the neighbors feel," Stephen said. His budget writers have penciled into the 2008-09 budget the revenue from five additional beds.

In the past, North End residents have reacted strongly against the notion of opening the YDC to troubled youth other than those who have gone through the New Hampshire system. Last year, Stephen backed away from plans to relocate the Tobey School to the YDC campus and to start a treatment program for juvenile arsonists.

The Tobey School provides education for seriously emotionally disturbed students.

The federal government covered most of the cost for building the new facility at the YDC campus. Its capacity is 144 inmates.

This week, Forey said 75 children were committed to the center and an additional 22 were there under pretrial detention. The YDC is in less demand because judges have assigned many juvenile offenders to facilities based in their own communities, Stephen said.

Forey said neighboring states have a critical need for detention space, especially for girls. Recently, Forey received a request from California to house juveniles at the YDC. But he said California is too far away, which would hamper the YDC's ability to work on family reunification.

"I don't think California has done their homework on it," he said.

Also, Stephen said, he is considering a request by Hooksett farmer Roger Charbonneau to use YDC land near the Merrimack River as a community garden. There is enough land for 150 families to grow produce, Charbonneau said. An area could also be dedicated to the New Hampshire Food Bank.

Charbonneau said the area is prime farmland that is laying fallow and overgrown by invasive species. "The land needs to be reclaimed," he said. He said an engineering assessment has to be completed; it is being paid for by a U.S. Agriculture Department agricultural innovation program grant.

Charbonneau hopes that planting could start in May, but approvals would be needed from state government officials.

Early indications are that neighbors like the idea, Stephen said.

"It's a win-win situation," Stephen said. Stephen said he will discuss YDC issues when he meets with neighbors on Monday, Oct. 23, to discuss the facility and give them an update.