Multi-County Juvenile Attention closes rehab center

The 27-bed residential treatment center at the Multi-County Juvenile Attention Center’s campus in Canton Township closed June 1.

The Multi-County Juvenile Attention System continues to shrink.

On June 1, its 47-year-old residential treatment center on the system’s campus in Canton Township in Stark County closed.

Possibly for good.

The system’s superintendent, James McKenzie, said it was no longer cost effective to keep the facility open as it was serving only about four to six girls.

The center, at 815 Faircrest St. SW, once had 27 beds but with closures of wings, it had a capacity of 18. Due to difficulties of finding people to fill positions, the boys wing was closed in February, McKenzie said.

According to Multi-County’s website, the treatment center provided counseling, anger management classes, life skills classes, a program to learn social skills, a healthy relationship program and drug and alcohol classes. Judges from Stark, Wayne, Columbiana, Tuscarawas and Carroll counties often sentenced juveniles to spend six months to a year there.

It had about 20 staffers in February and about 13 when it closed. McKenzie said the employees - including a cook, an administrator and counselors - filled vacancies at other Multi-County facilities, avoiding layoffs. One employee chose to step down rather than take a pay cut.

And Canton Local School District, which provides teachers and a principal for Multi-County’s Stark campus, was set Monday to lay off one teacher as a result of the closure.

McKenzie said the pandemic played no role in the decision to close the center except it accelerated the move by a month because Canton Local chose not to have summer school on the campus due to the virus. McKenzie said none of the juveniles or staff have tested positive for coronavirus.

Remaining open at Multi-County’s Canton Township campus is its detention facility and its Community Correctional Facility for boys convicted of felonies, which is operated under a contract with the Ohio Department of Youth Services.

McKenzie said the girls at treatment were transferred to Multi-County’s 10-bed group home in New Philadelphia.

McKenzie said the closure was the latest step in the “right sizing” of the system over the last two years. Due to judges seeking to minimize the spread of the coronavirus, the system with about 100 employees has about 50 juveniles in its facilities, a decrease from the usual 60 to 70.

Local county family court judges have been sending fewer youths to Multi-County Juvenile Attention System’s facilities the past two years. The judges have instead often referred juveniles to programs in their counties. The judges sought to avoid sending youths who’ve committed minor violations to a juvenile facility where they can be influenced by youths who’ve committed more serious crimes.

In 2018, Multi-County shut down its 16-bed Rogers Residential Center in Columbiana County. McKenzie said Multi-County is set July 1 to convert its 20-bed Linda Martin Attention Center in Wooster from a long-term juvenile detention facility to a transitional facility. That move, with the closure of the treatment center and other cuts, would save an estimated $2 million a year.

Stark County Commissioner Bill Smith, a member of Multi-County’s Board of Trustees, said Stark County’s contribution to the system has fallen from about $4.6 million last year to about $3.8 million. And he expects a further reduction for 2021 as the system’s spending continues to decline. He said that comes in the nick of time as the pandemic is expected to significantly hurt the county’s revenue going into next year.

Reach Robert at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com.