The Department of Juvenile Justice is closing its privately-run and troubled short-term detention center in Paulding DJJ assistant commissioner Mark Sexton said today.
The move will put 68 people out of jobs and will require local sheriffs in the six counties that now use the Paulding Regional Youth Detection Center to take them to RYDCs in Clayton or Floyd Counties instead.
Sexton said the decision to close the Paulding YDC was based totally on economics. He said the Florida-based company that runs it, Youth Services International, would continue to operate the state’s RYDC in Crisp County and the long-term Youth Development Campus in Milan.
“There is no intention to change that,” Sexton said.
The move should save the department about $3 million the rest of this budget year and $6 million in the next year, according to Sexton.
Earlier this year, the Paulding RYDC in Dallas topped a U.S. Department of Justice list of juvenile facilities with the highest proportion of reported claims of sexual contact between juveniles and staff. YSI, which manages the Paulding lockup, also has a troubled past in other states where it operates youth detention centers.
Youth Services International has had a state contract to staff and manage the Paulding RYDC, almost 40 miles west of downtown Atlanta, since 2008.
Georgia pays YSI about $18 million a year to run the Paulding RYDC, the Crisp RYDC in Cordele and Milan YDC in Telfair County.
The Paulding RYDC closes on Dec. 31. There are presently 45 teenage boys being held in the 100-bed facility, including 14 who have already been before a judge and are waiting for a cell in a long-term facility. The others are juveniles who have been arrested in Paulding, Carroll, Cherokee, Coweta, Douglas, Haralson and Heard counties and have not yet had their cases adjudicated.
