Allegheny County spars with council in court over Shuman reopening

A power struggle over a juvenile detention center in Allegheny County played out Friday in a Downtown Pittsburgh courtroom.

Attorneys for the county chief executive are asking a judge to throw out a complaint by County Council seeking to invalidate the contract that would reopen Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.

During oral argument on Friday, Assistant Solicitor Dennis Biondo Jr. said that the contract entered into with Latrobe-based Adelphoi did not require council approval.

But council, which did not get to vote on the five-year, $73 million contract, wants the deal declared void and unenforceable.

“This is a service being provided by Allegheny County through a contract,” Biondo told Washington County Judge Katherine Emery, who was brought in to hear the case because the local bench recused. “It simply does not need to be brought before council.”

But council’s attorney, Frederick Frank, disagreed and asked for the judge to hold a hearing to take testimony from witnesses.

“This whole service argument is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Frank said. “We’re entitled to our day in court to show this is ‘use and control.’ Somebody’s effectively taking over a county property.”

Shuman, in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood, was closed in September 2021 after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked its license following a number of violations.

Law enforcement agencies and court personnel have been frustrated at the lack of local, secure and reliable facilities to house juveniles who needed to be detained.

Problems with juvenile detention are widespread. Westmoreland County, for instance, has been confronting challenges finding staffing for its juvenile detention program.

In December, two teens ran away from a non-secure facility in Hempfield, including one facing second-degree murder charges. They had been placed there because a secure facility had been shut for the second half of last year due to a staffing shortage. The teens were recaptured two days later.

A study last year by Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission said that besides Westmoreland County’s facility, there was only one other government-operated juvenile detention center in Western Pennsylvania, a 20-bed facility in Erie.

On Friday, as arguments got underway in the Allegheny County case, a different hearing in which Shuman was invoked was unfolding in the family court building across the street.

The family court hearing involved an effort to move a homicide case against a teenage defendant to juvenile court from adult court. Nigel Thompson was 14 when he was charged last year with killing Damonte Hardrick.

“These kids have guns, and the system is failing them,” testified Lesa Hardrick, the victim’s great-aunt. “If Shuman Center was open, this wouldn’t have happened to my great-nephew.”

The courts and county announced in September that Adelphoi would be reopening the facility. The contract with Adelphoi said there was a “dire critical need” for a secure facility to detain defendants between 10 and 20 years old who are charged with serious crimes, deemed aggressive or have been found delinquent in juvenile court.

But soon after the contract was announced, council voted to sue the executive’s office, alleging that it was denied the right to review and approve the deal.

The lawsuit, which was filed before Sara Innamorato was voted in to replace Rich Fitzgerald as county executive, argues that Adelphoi will have complete control of the county property, which it claims requires council approval under the Home Rule Charter.

“It’s not a portion of the building,” Frank said. “Somebody’s effectively taking over a county property.”

But the executive’s office argues that under the Home Rule Charter, no approval was necessary.

Instead, the county alleged that the executive branch alone has the power to negotiate, award and sign all contracts with limited exceptions.

In this case, the county said, the agreement is in the form of a service contract, which is under the exclusive control of the executive branch.

The judge did not say when she might rule.

The facility is expected to reopen with 12 available beds in late April. The capacity is eventually expected to reach 60 beds.