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Carson City Juvenile Services struggles with outdated building

The 2021 Facility Needs Assessment found that the Juvenile Detention Center’s dayrooms need to be larger and better organized. Currently, the rooms host everything from reading material and TVs to workout equipment and ping pong tables.

The 2021 Facility Needs Assessment found that the Juvenile Detention Center’s dayrooms need to be larger and better organized. Currently, the rooms host everything from reading material and TVs to workout equipment and ping pong tables.
Faith Evans/Nevada Appeal

By Faith Evans

Thursday, March 17, 2022

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The Carson City Juvenile Detention Center is over 40 years old, and it’s showing its age.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Thursday, Chief of Juvenile Services Ali Banister posed an ambitious request. She needs a new building.
The 2021 Facility Needs Assessment found that the detention center is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, has no sprinkler system, has a deficient electrical system, and suffers from poor air quality due to outdated air circulation system.
Not only that, but as the city grows, Banister worries it’s outpacing the detention center’s capacity. At the time it was built, the facility could hold up to 36 youths, with two per room. The Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003 imposed a new requirement: only one juvenile per room.
Now Juvenile Services has a building with half the capacity, serving almost double the city population compared to 1979.
While they expressed their sympathies, supervisors had a unanimous answer: the city has no funding mechanisms to start building a new $45 million juvenile detention center.
“When we go for a major capital project, they usually are 8-10 years out,” Mayor Lori Bagwell said.
Chief Financial Officer Sheri Russell said the city could fund the project starting in 2026, but without grants or external revenue sources, the amount of bonds that the city would have to issue would max out the city’s bonding capability. The city would have no wiggle room to borrow money for other capital projects.
If the city does eventually find the funding for a new Juvenile Detention Center, staff recommends building it on the open space next to the existing detention center (outlined in red).

 

Renovating the building is not an option, largely due to the concrete load-bearing walls.Supervisor Stacey Giomi said the city should consider a regional juvenile detention program, partnering with surrounding rural counties to build and staff a facility.
Rhetorically, he asked, “Is it viable for Lyon County to have a $45 million complex and Carson City to have a $45 million complex and Douglas County to have a $45 million complex?”
On the other hand, Supervisor Maurice White pointed out Carson City’s Juvenile Detention Center has never been over-capacity in 2022, and the facility detained fewer youth during the pandemic. He asked whether the city saw any ill-effects from detaining at a lower rate during the pandemic.
“We had a large portion of our population that was going unchecked during COVID,” Sheriff Ken Furlong said.
He added the facility is not just about detaining and punishing youth.
“The focus here is about Juvenile Services. Services. … Services need to be at the forefront,” he said.
Frank Mournighan, Juvenile Detention Center manager, agreed that the request for a new building goes beyond capacity concerns.
“It’s not just about sheer numbers. … It’s about keeping everyone safe while they’re in the facility,” he said.
Many of the youth he interacts with enter the facility with mental health issues. Currently, the Juvenile Detention Center has one safe holding cell made to accommodate suicidal detainees.
Often, Banister said, that’s not nearly enough.
“We have multiple suicidal youth at a time with limited capacity to hold them,” she said.
Supervisor Stan Jones said the city should address immediate safety concerns in the building, even if a new building is infeasible.
When the Juvenile Detention Center was constructed in 1978, city code did not require a sprinkler system, and the ADA was not signed into law until a decade later.
“We have been inspected by the fire station. We are compliant as far as fire code, so I don’t want the community to be under the impression that we’re not compliant. We do have safety protocol in regards to getting the kids out of the building,” Banister said in an interview with the Appeal after her presentation.
As for ADA compliance, Banister said in her time working with Juvenile Services, she’s never had to house a juvenile with a disability, but it’s something she worries about every day. She would have to either send the youth to another facility or release them back into the community.
Banister emphasized the building is not ideal, but the youth there are safe.
“We are (Prison Rape Elimination Act) compliant. We have made adjustments in the facility to make sure that we pass audits,” she said. “The kids’ safety is paramount.”

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