On Jan. 11, the Vermont Department for Children and Families presented its budget to the House Appropriations Committee. Its proposal would redirect $4.6 million that has been earmarked for “child development” to a fund that will be used to pay for building a temporary, architecturally secure structure to house adjudicated youth.
This is in addition to the $5 million DCF has already socked away to build a six-bed secure detention facility in Newbury — forcing a noncompliant land use in a conservation district, despite the lack of services and infrastructure.
Given the significant need for programs to support Vermont’s children — particularly special education and other child development needs, which are in greater demand than ever after the stresses and disruptions of the pandemic — it is unbelievable that DCF would seek to transfer the funding to support those critical needs in order to pay for grossly overpriced detention centers. Instead of working to ensure that Vermont’s children are supported, DCF plans to redirect that taxpayer money toward youth incarceration.
The six-bed facility planned for Newbury is already estimated to cost taxpayers more than three times the national average to operate — and that’s on top of the $5 million committed to renovate the building. And DCF has admitted that this facility does not even address the need in Vermont for housing adjudicated youth. Even if DCF wins the increasingly expensive legal case to overturn Newbury’s zoning decision, it will still need another facility to house the target youth population.
Wouldn’t it be better to achieve some economy of scale, and invest those taxpayer dollars on a single facility that is adequate to meet the full scope of Vermont’s needs? This higgledy-piggledy plan to spend unnecessary millions on separate — in some cases temporary — facilities scattered all over the state is inefficient and wasteful. And the price tag for these facilities keeps going up.
Will our Legislature buy into this expensive, fiscally irresponsible plan? A plan that prioritizes incarceration over child development and stomps all over the zoning laws and town plans of our communities?
At what point do state leaders pull the plug on these overpriced and half-baked schemes to house adjudicated youth? And where will the funding for children’s development programs come from if DCF is allowed to swipe it for other uses?
State leaders need to answer these questions.
Susan Culp
Newbury