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Since November, the Scott administration has been pushing to close the state’s only youth detention facility. But the fate of the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center is up to the Legislature, where lawmakers are just beginning to consider their options.
Ken Schatz, commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, told members of the House Human Services Committee this week that the state is now only caring for between three and five high-need youth at a time. Woodside is a 30-bed facility with a roughly $6 million budget. State officials say they can save more than $3 million by closing it and contracting those services out.
But lawmakers questioned the department’s about-face: just last year, Schatz recommended that the state build a new treatment facility with a $23 million price tag. Plus, the decision makers have yet to hear from Woodside employees, who say it’s the state’s responsibility to provide quality care.
Some teachers, counselors and other Woodside staff, along with the Vermont State Employees’ Association, have their own suggestion: keep the facility open, but scale back its budget and staff. The group has drafted two proposals for converting Woodside to a 10-bed or 16-bed facility.
“It’s barebones,” said one teacher, Matt Messier. But he and others believe it’s the right way to maintain care for the youth that end up at the facility.
On this week’s podcast, VTDigger’s Alan Keays talks to Woodside employees about how they see the facility’s future, while Schatz makes the administration’s case to lawmakers.
This post will be updated with a transcript.
Read the story on VTDigger here: The Deeper Dig: What’s next for Woodside.