Editor:
As a social work professional, I am disheartened at the recent move by the Berks County commissioners to expedite the reopening of the juvenile detention center (“Firms outline plan for youth center,” Reading Eagle, May 16). While I completely understand the shortage of available beds for juvenile detention across the state, the county has issued an emergency declaration and enlisted the help of a corporation that is a current litigant in a lawsuit alleging the systemic mental, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of minors at its facilities.
We need to get the planning out of the hands of “criminal justice” corporations and in the hands of educated professionals in social work, therapy, restorative justice and actual evidence-based rehabilitative services instead of continuing the same old harmful punitive detention practices of the past.
The commissioners need to start including the professional community stakeholders in this conversation and be more transparent about the whole process to ensure trauma-informed, rehabilitative and restorative, evidence-based measures are being taken for these juveniles.
The children are our future, and a rising tide lifts all ships.
Jordan Henning
Exeter Township
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