Editorial: Juvenile detention must be consistent and secure

Braedon M. Dickinson, 16, and Robert Cogdell, 14, were watching television on Saturday night.

All of a sudden, they got up and ran out the back door. News came Monday morning that they were found more than 30 miles away in Fayette County.

It’s a worrisome situation no matter what kids were involved. It could lead to questions about the adults involved and how the situation developed. Who was watching them? How did it happen?

It’s all the worse when you realize the kids in this case were facing criminal charges.

Dickinson is one of seven defendants in the July 2022 death of Jason Raiford, 39, of New Kensington. One — Amir Kennedy, 16, of New Kensington — was convicted of first-degree murder last week; co-defendants DaMontae Brooks, 17, and Elijah Gary, 20, were acquitted of murder but found guilty of conspiracy and robbery in the same trial.

But it wasn’t from a home that Dickinson and Cogdell fled Saturday. It was a Westmoreland County shelter.

In June, the secure juvenile detention side of the Regional Youth Services Center was closed amid staffing problems and state investigations into issues including self-harm and a suicide attempt. The unsecured side — the shelter — remained open.

Dickinson had been held in custody at the juvenile detention center this spring before its closing and was released on house arrest after a failed suicide attempt. Officials said he went on the run this summer and was captured last month. Dickinson had been a shelter resident since Nov. 14, when Common Pleas Court Judge Michele Bononi said he was picked up again.

“It was to protect him and for the community,” she said. “It was better than having him on the street. It was the only alternative.”

But it shouldn’t be.

The county should have had a better, more viable solution after the detention center was closed. The state should have required such plans to be in place. The court should demand it as minors pass through the juvenile justice system.

An unsecured shelter meant for adolescents with nowhere to turn, staffed by people who aren’t permitted to stop or detain them, is not a substitute for locked doors and firm supervision when that is what is necessary. It is unfair to the troubled children as well as to the other minors in the shelter.

It also is wrong for staff, children’s families and the community at-large.

The 16-bed detention facility has been reopened by county commissioners in an emergency capacity with just Dickinson and one other unidentified youth.

“It was a crisis situation, and we are able to operate with a bare bones staff to ensure a bad actor is taken off the street,” Commissioner Ted Kopas said.

But the decision to provide appropriate detention cannot be because of one “bad actor” — especially as the system must maintain the idea of innocence until proven guilty.

Instead, having adequate, safe, supervised and consistent juvenile facilities has to be the bare minimum because you never know when a couple of kids watching TV on a Saturday night will turn into something very different.