VTDigger posts regular coronavirus updates on this page. You can also subscribe here for daily coronavirus news. Please send your Covid-19 questions to coronavirus@vtdigger.org
The Vermont Department for Children and Families is moving the state’s only juvenile detention facility for the third time in two months, this time back to its original location: the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex.
DCF first moved youth out of Woodside in March to make room at the Essex site for psychiatric patients with Covid-19 symptoms.
But the state never ended up needing to house Covid-19 patients at the 30-bed facility.
As the number of cases of the virus in Vermont decline and the state is starting to resume “somewhat new normal operations,” it will be moving youth, who are now housed at the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence, back to Woodside, according to Candace Morgan, a spokesperson for the Agency of Human Services.
The move also comes after one youth escaped from the facility this week and is still at large.
There are currently three youth at the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence who will be moved to Essex in the coming days.
The state’s juvenile detention facility was first moved in March, to a converted office space in St. Albans. Two residents escaped from the facility, which lacked security infrastructure including locks and alarms.
Then DCF moved the youth to the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence after realizing that it wouldn’t be able to make the security upgrades needed to hold youth at the St. Albans facility.
In a statement in April, DCF said that the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence “is hardware secure with locked doors and perimeter fencing” and “offers outdoor areas including a recreational area and interior spaces for activities, creativity, and wellness.”
The Vermont State Employees’ Association, a union representing state workers including DCF staff, pushed in recent weeks to move the detention facility back to Woodside, arguing the Middlesex site wasn’t secure enough.
Steve Howard, the executive director of the VSEA, said staff were worried that the youth would be able to hurt themselves or staff members. It would have been easy, he said, for them to “weaponize furniture” or “weaponize various parts of that building.”
“It’s not a concrete structure. It’s not a structure that could withstand kind of violent outbursts,” Howard said.
“Even though it’s more secure than what appeared to be like a dentist’s office in St. Albans, it’s not as secure as Woodside,” he said.
Morgan said the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence is a secure facility, but it typically serves only residential mental health patients.
“The youth that are in that program are different than the adults that are there otherwise, so I think it wasn’t maybe the best fit for who was there at that time,” she said.
Morgan confirmed that one person escaped the facility on Tuesday and had not been returned to state custody.
DCF officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
After the youth return Woodside, the Department of Mental Health will be moving patients back into the Middlesex Therapeutic Community Residence.
Get the latest statistics and live updates on our coronavirus page.
Sign up for our coronavirus email list.
Tell us your story or give feedback at coronavirus@vtdigger.org.
Support our nonprofit journalism with a donation.
