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| Budget cuts will close youth jail |
| By Eric Frazier - Charlotte Observer |
| Published: 02/21/2009 |
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Mecklenburg County, wrestling with an increasingly dim financial outlook, announced Friday that it will immediately cut $17.4 million from an array of basic services, from jails to parks and recreation. The decision included no layoffs but did claim a notable casualty: the county's main lockup for adolescent crime suspects. The 30-bed Gatling Juvenile Detention Center in Huntersville will close by April 1. “Mecklenburg County has been invited to the recession, and we don't have the option of saying no,” County Manager Harry Jones said in a statement. Nearly all of the county's revenue sources are down, Jones said. He has told Mecklenburg commissioners the county faces a $57.1 million shortfall this budget year. He hopes to close the gap to $30 million or less, then apply money from the county's reserves. Further cuts could be necessary if revenues keep falling, he noted. Additionally, the county faces a projected $70 million gap next budget year, which begins July 1. Jones said the county will keep looking for ways to cut expenses, while hoping the federal stimulus money improves matters. The county has already asked Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to give back $2.5 million in county money. The county will save about $2 million this budget year and next by closing Gatling, Sheriff Chipp Bailey said. The facility averages about 18 detainees age 15 and younger. Built in 1971, Gatling initially held runaways and other troubled youths, but Bailey said today's detainees tend to be gang members facing serious criminal charges. The 26 sheriff's office employees who work at Gatling will be moved to other positions within the department, he added. He'll also have to postpone hiring 56 detention officers and push back from spring to this fall the opening of a 100-bed youthful offender unit at the Jail North facility. The Gatling youths will be shipped to facilities in other counties, a fact that upsets child advocates who've worked to make teachers, social workers and mental health counselors available. Youths could be sent as far away as Wilmington and stand to lose regular visits from relatives, said Brett Loftis, head of the Council for Children's Rights. He said shutting down Gatling puts the youths at greater risk of joining the adult jail population later. “All these kids come back” to Charlotte, he said. “The more we can do to make sure they come back as productive citizens, the better.” Bailey agreed, but he said housing juvenile offenders is a state responsibility. Mecklenburg is one of the few counties that staffs a juvenile pre-trial lockup. County commissioner Bill James said Republicans have long sought to have the facility closed. Bailey said he had no choice. Jones told him that he had to cut $3 million, and most other functions in the sheriff's office are required by law. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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