Saturday, July 17, 2004
Editorial: Hope springs from Coyner Springs
The turnaround of the regional juvenile detention center is beneficial to the Roanoke Valley in a number of ways.
From the RoundTable blog
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In 1996, what was then known as the Coyner Springs Juvenile Detention Home was put on probation for 33 violations of standards, mostly related to poor maintenance and holding up to 55 youths in space designed for 21. The city-run institution responded in part by curtailing admissions from surrounding communities, which then had to scramble for expensive space elsewhere. An exceptional display of cooperation produced a plan to expand Coyner Springs under the control of a regional commission, but political retribution by then-Gov. Jim Gilmore against former House Democratic Leader Richard Cranwell of Vinton stalled financing.
The problems and obstacles were great - but were overcome all the same. And now the regionalized, renovated and expanded Roanoke Valley Juvenile Detention Center offers hope in multiple ways.
Foremost is the hope of a better life it can give residents and other troubled juveniles referred there. Innovative programs, improved management and dedicated, better-trained staff were evidenced recently by national recognition of two employees: instructor Kelvin Edwards, who heads Impact 180, a leadership-based alternative drug-treatment program, and Rick Weekly, a detention case manager who helped start a system for arraigning juveniles by video rather than leaving the facility.
Other hopes lie outside the center's walls.
For Western Virginia, its success shows regional cooperation really can work. For taxpayers, it offers evidence that floundering government institutions can be restored.
And for society, the greatest hope of all emerges: that it can provide effective, restorative corrections for juveniles, rather than simply warehouse them.
The violent still require confinement, of course. But the vast majority of juvenile offenders in Virginia commit nonviolent crimes, with drug abuse the fastest-growing category. Programs such as Impact 180 can help them overcome causal factors such as substance abuse, mental illness and abusive families and avoid simply growing into adult criminals.
Fixing the detention center may mean more to the region than it will ever know.
