Allegheny County councilwoman disputes claim that Shuman closure led to spike in gun, youth violence

In the aftermath of last week’s triple homicide on the North Side, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey blamed increased gun and youth violence, in part, on the closure of Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.

“We should have never closed Shuman without a plan,” Gainey said during a news conference related to the Oct. 15 shooting.

It’s unclear why Gainey linked the shooting to the September 2021 closure of the juvenile detention center. Killed in the shooting were Jacquelyn Mehalic, 33, Betty J. Averytt, 59, and John Hornezes, 20. Police have not made any arrests or released information on any suspects.

Shuman Center closed Sept. 18, 2021, after the state Department of Human Services revoked its license. Shuman Center, a 47-year-old facility in Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar that had a capacity of 120 residents, was housing just 20 children with an average age of 16 when it closed, county officials said at the time.

The mention of Shuman has led to debate among civic leaders and clarifications from a Harrisburg-based commission on juvenile justice.

Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam said the county administration is at least partly responsible for the fact that there isn’t a Pittsburgh-based juvenile detention center in operation.

“The county let (Shuman Center) get to such a disastrous point that the state had to shut it down. It was bad and everybody knew that,” Hallam told the Tribune-Review. “Shuman needed to get shut down — that is a reality. It was an oversight of the county administration to not have a plan in place so nobody had to scramble.”

But Hallam disagrees that there’s a link between the facility’s closure and any increase in gun or youth violence.

“There’s zero evidence, zero data, that from the time Shuman closed until now that childhood violence has spiked,” Hallam said. “Everyone who’s saying Shuman closing led to this violence is saying nonsense.”

Today, Allegheny County ships children the courts worry will not show up for court proceedings out of the area. The county currently has a total of 12 beds between two Adelphoi locations, one of which is in Latrobe. The county also has beds “as they may be available” at a facility right across the Ohio River in Steubenville, Ohio, a court administrator said.

Some children also are held as adults at Allegheny County Jail. Hallam, a member of the jail oversight board, said the juvenile count at the jail on Friday totaled 19.

Robert Tomassini, executive director of Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Court Judges Commission, said juvenile detention center admissions are “definitely a concern across the commonwealth,” but for a different reason than Gainey illustrated. The commission consists of nine, governor-appointed judges and helps establish processes, procedures and best practices for the prosecution of children.

“At least 15 centers have closed since 2006 — today, there are only 13 detention centers available to serve the 67 counties,” Tomassini said. “But many of these detention facilities are not operating at full capacity due to staffing and other issues.”

“It’s a serious public safety issue,” he added. “With our current detention crisis, judges across the state are unable to detain many juveniles who do pose a risk to flee or abscond. You have to resort to other ways of handling these cases, including electronic monitoring or house arrest.”

Allegheny County has other ideas. The county’s redevelopment authority on Oct. 6 issued a request for redevelopment proposals at the 18-acre, former Shuman site. Developers have until Friday to submit their proposals, according to the document.

“A strong preference will be given to a developer/operator who intends to redevelop the site for the continued operation of a juvenile detention facility,” the document said.