Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, chair of the House Corrections and Institutions Committee, listens to a discussion of the state of the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
A proposal to replace the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex with a $23.3 million new facility received a warm reception from a House panel Wednesday, even though it won’t result in renewed federal funding to help pay for programs.
And even if approved this legislative session, a new juvenile center would still be at least three years away from opening, according to testimony Wednesday before the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions.
“I think I can say for the committee, and if I’m wrong someone correct me, but I think Woodside is a priority for this committee,” Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, committee chair, said.
“I say that because we need to address a deficient building and our youth should not be traumatized anymore,” Emmons said, adding, “The sooner we can act the better.”
The committee took no action Wednesday, but Emmons did say she was awaiting action from other legislative panels that still need to weigh in on the future of Woodside.
Last fall, the state decided to no longer pursue its two-year effort to secure federal funding to help cover the costs of running the facility, with the federal government saying the facility didn’t meet its criteria for a psychiatric residential treatment facility provider.
As a result, the facility was not eligible for the roughly $2.6 million in annual Medicaid funding it received in the past to help pay for the roughly $6 million cost of running the center.
Ken Schatz, commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, told the House commitee that the decision regarding the federal funds prompted officials to look at Woodside’s future.
Options considered included:
• no secure facility for Vermont youth in state;
• a smaller 15-bed facility used for detention or short-term placement;
• a 30-day facility that allows for both short- and long-term treatment, with locked and unlocked areas.
Ken Schaatz, commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, testifies on the state of the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center before the House Corrections and Institutions Committee Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Schatz described the current 30-bed Woodside facility, built in 1984, as “jail-like,” inefficient for providing therapeutic care, and in need of many repairs. He termed the need for new facility more a “programmatic” issue than simply a space one.
Gov. Phil Scott did not include money for a new Woodside in his proposed capital budget for the next fiscal year. Schatz said the governor’s budget proposal calls for having the general fund cover the loss of federal Medicaid funding for the Woodside facility at the same level and in the same building.
“That’s the approach we’re taking for the time being as this conversation goes forward,” the commissioner said.
Schatz said he supports a new 30-bed facility at the same site.
“I’m not going to be shy, I’m a proponent of a new building, and I do respect the governor’s proposed budget, and the timing of when that happens is obviously going to be up to the governor and you,” Schatz told the House panel Wednesday. “But, I believe our youth really deserve a better facility than we currently have.”
Schatz said the new facility would not recapture the lost federal money because the “population” of youth at the center come there through the criminal justice system and are viewed as inmates in a public institution.
“That means they are ineligible for Medicaid,” the commissioner said, citing that as the same reason why the facility has lost the federal funding to begin with.
“You should not be thinking that a new building will enable us to regain Medicaid funding,” he added.
Schatz said that having no facility would lead to having no place to put youth who pose a risk to themselves or others, and cannot be managed in less restrictive programs.
As for a smaller 15-bed facility, the commissioner said, it would result in more youth being sent out of state for care. Already, he said, 57 youth in DCF custody are placed in out-of-state programs.
“We believe it is beneficial to the state to build a 30-bed facility with the potential to alleviate the necessity of sending so many youths to out-of-state residential programs,” according to Schatz. “This would allow some of the youth who are currently out of state to be successfully treated here in Vermont.”
Even if approved this legislative session, state officials testified Wednesday that it would take more than three years to design and build a new 30-bed Woodside facility on the same site as the current one.
Michael Kuhn, design and construction program chief for state Department of Buildings & General Services, talked to the House panel Wednesday about problems with the existing facilities.
“I will give DCF staff and volunteers a lot of credit, that facility is certainly not conducive to the rehabilitation and treatment of these juveniles and they do an outstanding job with what they’re provided,” Kuhn said.
The entrance to the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Colchester. Photo by Sara Priestap/Valley News
Among the problems cited by Kuhn at the current facility include:
• lack of natural light;
• layout prevents segregation by gender, age, or other needs;
• insufficient space for counseling, treatment, family visits, legal counsel;
• some rooms are used for multiple purposes, and many rooms are interconnected and one must pass through to reach another room;
• not enough nursing space and no dedicated intake or infirmary;
• medicine does not have a dedicated space.
Preliminary estimates put the cost of building a new 30-bed facility on the Woodside site at $23.3 million, Kuhn told the panel.
He said the Legislature would not have to set aside the full $23.3 million needed for a new facility in one year due to the time needed to do design work, estimated at about 18 months, and construction, also estimated at about 18 months.
As result, the first year, he said, only about $2.5 million for the design work would need to be budgeted, followed by about two-thirds of the construction cost the following year and one-third of that cost the year after that.
“If we move ahead you would need $2.5 million?” Emmons asked, referring to the fiscal year 2020 spending plan currently being put together.
“Correct,” Kuhn replied.
Read the story on VTDigger here: New Woodside facility carries $23.3M price tag, but no federal program funds.