Pittsburgh Police express struggles of limited capacities for juvenile criminals

PITTSBURGH — There is still no arrest in that Easter Sunday morning shooting on the Northside that left two teenagers dead. And this is just one of the recent incidents involving juveniles and guns.

We wanted to know if there’s any correlation between this uptick in juvenile crime and the closing of the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.

Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle spoke with law enforcement officers, court administrators and defense attorneys to get their take on this issue.

According to law enforcement sources, a juvenile accused of robbing a pizza delivery man at gunpoint was arrested by Pittsburgh Police late last year, but because there was no place to detain him, he was released.

“It’s frustrating and it’s not just the city of Pittsburgh. I mean everybody that serviced by Shuman Center,” said Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert.

Schubert, speaking at a news conference on juvenile gun violence with representatives from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. attorney’s office after the mass shooting on the Northside, expressed concern about the closing of Shuman.

“We need a place where we can put people who shouldn’t be on the street right now in a place where we can have them in custody. That’s not always available,” said Schubert.

Last fall, after repeated violations involving drugs, thefts and safety issues, the state revoked the license of the Shuman Detention Center.

Allegheny County, which operated the facility, then decided to close the 120-bed detention center that according to the county website temporarily housed an average of 1,600 juvenile offenders every year since it opened in December of 1974.

Allegheny County then signed a contract for 16 temporary beds at private facilities in Westmoreland and Cambria counties, but when those facilities are filled, the only option most times is to release the offender.

In some of those more serious cases, the offender is placed on house arrest using electronic monitoring.

But law enforcement sources tell Target 11 that often times it takes days to set up the monitoring and those juveniles are left unchecked.

“You do end up arresting people multiple times and they’re right back on the street and that’s a problem where there’s a sense of there’s no accountability. So I’m just going to keep doing it,” said Schubert.

And it’s not just the city of Pittsburgh dealing with this issue.

Police departments across Allegheny County are feeling the frustration.

“We arrest someone. We’re doing our part, and then we’re dealing with that same person three or four days later, maybe doing the same thing. So it’s a safety concern,” said West View Borough Police Chief Bruce Fromlak, who’s also president of the Allegheny County Police Chief’s Association.

But during the past several years, court administrators tell Target 11 they have become less reliant on Shuman, and more reliant on electronic monitoring.

In fact, when Shuman closed for good last September, only 20 juveniles were being housed there.

It’s a move defense attorney Joe Horowitz applauds.

“I think they’ve realized that keeping kids there wasn’t, especially before trial, wasn’t necessarily best for them. And then that gives the judge the chance to actually see the situation and fix it rather than just shove them in a box and hope for the best,” said Horowitz.

Horowitz said for years, detention hearings in Allegheny County were a formality and juveniles were routinely detained at Shuman.

“One of the problems with Shuman in the juvenile system all along has been everybody kind of gets lumped in and it’s really not one size fits all, especially with children, " said Horowitz.

With the closing of Shuman, the courts are now looking for a private company to operate a regional detention center that could serve multiple counties.

Horowitz said he’s opposed to a private company operating a juvenile facility.

“These are children we’re dealing with and anytime we’re putting kids in jail for profit, seems like a really bad starting point to me, and I mean it’s proven not to work in other places,” said Horowitz, who referred to the infamous “Kids for Cash” scandal that rocked Luzerne County a decade ago.

Two judges were convicted of taking kickbacks to impose harsher sentences on juveniles to increase the occupancy at a private detention center and to increase its profit margin.

“I think the judges in Allegheny County have really been taking the situation seriously. I think it’s unfortunate that the situation they’re faced now with Shuman but hopefully they’ll find the right solution and I think everybody’s trying to do right by these kids more so than, you know maybe ten to 15 years ago,” said Horowitz.

Fromlak said he’s optimistic the county and the courts will ultimately come up with a plan.

“The courts and everyone else are getting together to figure out the problem and they’ll be successful figuring it out. We know, we know that but for today, speaking of today and next week, and probably next month, this is what we have to work with,” said Fromlak.

While there’s no easy solution here, court officials tell me they are diligently working with the county on a plan to find a place to temporarily house violent juvenile offenders until their cases are adjudicated.

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