Long-troubled Shuman Center reopening today

Three years after the troubled Shuman Juvenile Detention Center was shut down and its license revoked, the facility will reopen today on the same site in Pittsburgh but under new management, giving Allegheny County a dedicated place to keep troubled youths for the first time since 2021.

Highland Detention at Shuman Center, its formal name, is still owned by Allegheny County, but it will now be operated by Latrobe-based nonprofit Adelphoi.

Shuman is intended to serve as a short-term detention center for children and young adults from age 10 to 20.

When it opens, there will be one pod with 12 beds available. Eventually, Adelphoi CEO Nancy Kukovich said, the maximum capacity will be 60.

When Shuman opened in 1976, it had a capacity of 120 children.

Since the September 2021 closure — following years of provisional licenses for various violations — children facing serious criminal charges have either been moved to detention facilities outside the county or have been released on probation or electronic monitoring.

Since then, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges have lamented not having a local facility for placement.

In a news release, Adelphoi said that between December 2021 and last October, 234 youths in Allegheny County who met the criteria for secure detention were not held — often going on probation with electronic monitoring.

Of that group, Adelphoi said that five were shot and killed and one died of a drug overdose. One more was critically injured in a shooting.

From January 2022 to January 2024, there were additionally 436 instances where juveniles cut off their electronic monitoring bracelets or let the batteries die.

Some juveniles have also been held at the Allegheny County Jail, where they are kept segregated from adults. As of Monday, 29 juveniles were being held at the jail.

Kukovich said in an interview with TribLive that a large part of the previous problems with Shuman had to do with the physical plant of the Lincoln-Lemington- Belmar facility.

As a result, the county will spend $10 million on renovations and technology upgrades.

Adelphoi, the only entity to submit a bid when the county called for proposals to operate the facility, won a five-year $73 million contract.

That contract is the subject of ongoing litigation. Shortly after the deal was announced, Allegheny County Council sued the county alleging that council should have been given the chance to vote on the contract.

The county executive’s office, though, said that under the Home Rule Charter, county administration has the authority to enter into all service contracts.

Kukovich said that about 30 staff members have been hired to work on the pod that opens today.