Information launched in January 2026 to Allegheny County officers provides a transparent have a look at who’s being held at Highland Detention Heart – and what kind of it prices taxpayers. The numbers display brief remains, vital racial disparities and thousands and thousands spent to perform the ability. Those findings lift new questions on whether or not detention is getting used successfully within the county’s formative years justice device.
In 2025, 220 younger other people handed during the middle. The county paid just about US$800 in line with day for each and every of the 12 beds within the facility, whether or not they had been occupied or now not.
The middle operates on the web site of the previous Shuman Juvenile Detention Heart in Allegheny County. After a documented historical past of kid abuse, clinical problems, unauthorized use of restraints and different violations, Shuman closed in September 2021 when the Pennsylvania Division of Human Products and services revoked its license.
Shuman opened in 1974 with an occupancy of roughly 120 beds. On the time it used to be closed, the day by day inhabitants had dropped to twenty juveniles at an annual value of $11 million.
As a professor of social paintings on the College of Pittsburgh, I find out about regulation, coverage and kid welfare. I’ve spent my profession learning how the juvenile justice device can form – and likewise injury – the lives of younger other people whilst developing vital prices to taxpayers.
Right here’s what native taxpayers in Pennsylvania are paying for juvenile detention.
A pricey reinvention
Allegheny County signed a five-year, $73 million contract with nonprofit group Adelphoi to perform a detention facility on the outdated Shuman web site in 2023. It used to be renamed Highland Juvenile Detention Facility.
The county agreed to pay $650.25 in line with mattress, in line with day for the primary yr of the contract. That price, the contract specifies, “shall be adjusted each year.” Through the top of 2025, it had already climbed to $825 in line with day. In general, the county paid Adelphoi just about $7 million final yr to carry children for a mean keep of 13 days.
The ability introduced 12 beds in 2025. The contract requires that quantity to extend to 60 beds, with the prices additionally emerging to $19 million once a year. The county has an approach to renew the contract when it expires on the finish of 2028.
In March 2026, there have been seven juveniles being held at Highland. Lately February 2026, there have been roughly 12 to fourteen juveniles held within the Allegheny County Prison. They may be able to be held within the prison for various causes however are basically there if they’re being charged as an grownup.
Who’s being locked up
Statistics display a correlation between juvenile detention and grownup involvement with the felony felony device.
Consistent with The Sentencing Mission, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, greater than a 3rd of other people in state prisons have served time in a juvenile facility.
Black formative years are greater than 5 instances much more likely to be positioned in juvenile amenities than white friends, and two-thirds of state prisoners skilled an arrest prior to age 19.
Kind of a dozen juveniles are being held within the Allegheny County Prison.
AP Photograph/Gene J. Puskar
Within the juvenile device, detention is meant to be brief time period and is normally used previous to an adjudication, the choice of somebody’s guilt or innocence.
Detention is normally used for children who pose a danger of committing further crimes or a threat of now not showing in court docket, in accordance with a choice by means of a probation officer, a state risk-assessment check or a pass judgement on, normally. Dentention isn’t a vacation spot however a part of a continuum with a objective of transferring a teenager to much less restrictive possible choices, reminiscent of community-based methods and services and products that permit formative years to stay at house, in class and of their communities whilst receiving supervision, remedy and strengthen. Those possible choices are regularly simpler at decreasing recidivism and no more pricey than protected confinement.
Whilst children in detention have the fitting to obtain a loose public schooling and will have to be introduced bodily, behavioral, psychological well being and leisure services and products, in step with state regulation, detention isn’t a remedy facility.
The selection of children in detention amenities within the U.S has dropped considerably over the last two decades, from roughly 400,000 to 135,000. On the other hand, a mean of 13,000 to fourteen,000 children stay in detention amenities around the nation day by day. Formative years of colour are disproportionately represented, and lots of children are detained for minor crimes, technical violations or standing offenses, reminiscent of breaking curfew.
In response to to be had knowledge and my very own enjoy operating in and with detention amenities, it’s transparent that formative years locked in those amenities don’t seem to be most effective the ones liable to committing any other crime or now not showing in court docket. Many have schooling, psychological well being and substance abuse wishes, come from deficient households or establish as LGBTQ+. In lots of respects, detention amenities have served as a dumping floor for formative years coping with an unlimited array of problems of their lives.
The juvenile justice device used to be constructed basically round managing threat and making sure court docket appearances. It does little to handle the underlying wishes of the kids transferring via it. Risky housing, overlooked faculty and loss of supervision can cause detention even if a kid poses no actual danger. In lots of circumstances, juvenile detention finally ends up filling an opening left by means of social services and products.
Doubling down on detention
In spite of its restricted capability, the Allegheny County Highland Detention Heart dashboard presentations 220 youths had been detained at Highland in 2025. 80-six p.c of those children are Black. Firearms fees are the most typical offense.
Greater than part had an individualized schooling plan, a legally binding record that outlines the precise tutorial strengthen and services and products a scholar with a bodily or psychological incapacity is entitled to obtain in class.
Over 60% had been concerned with the kid welfare device, 88% had circle of relatives involvement within the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, or SNAP, and 72% had gained a disaster psychological well being carrier in the future prior to getting into Highland.
Analysis presentations that younger people who find themselves detained are much more likely to devote further offenses when they’re launched, enjoy tutorial and financial disruption, and face larger psychological well being demanding situations. Detention does now not advertise the social construction of younger other people or network protection.
Plenty of possible choices to detention exist which have been proven to be simpler and value considerably much less – reminiscent of mentoring methods, circle of relatives remedy, cognitive behavioral remedy and restorative justice methods.
Restorative justice methods deliver sufferers, accused formative years and devoted adults of their lives in combination to talk about the hurt led to by means of the offense. They get a hold of a plan to help in making issues “right” between the events to keep away from next offenses and lend a hand the formative years be told from the incident.
The bucks being spent to restrict children in Allegheny County may well be reinvested within the younger other people themselves and of their households, colleges and communities. The brand new advisory board used to be appointed to Highland in July 2025. The board used to be created to offer a layer of duty over the ability and Adelphoi – however what that appears like in apply stays up within the air.
