rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/jdbom-20-year-agreement?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-jdbom-20-year-agreement' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Delco Accent https://actionnetwork.org/groups/delcoaccent https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/794/583/normal/Untitled_-_July_30__2026_at_11.58.51.png On July 15, 2026, Delaware County Council voted to initiate an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement that ties taxpayers to twenty more years of commitment to the caging of kids from our community, away from their families or the care they need. This vote took place without the involvement or oversight of the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Board of Managers, appointed by Delaware County Council to bring accountability back to those directly impacted by these public policy decisions. We have recently learned that Delco's council members are now at least making an effort to bring this decision back before the Juvenile Detention Board of Managers for their consideration, where its jurisdiction lies according to Council's own policies. It is absolutely imperative that we make decisions based on a future that supports and includes all young people, not one that doubles down on past mistakes. Your voice is needed to help both the JDBOM and Delco Council to make a policy choice that prioritizes the safety and well-being of young people, that spends our tax dollars wisely, and which ensures long-term decision-making around juvenile justice remains with Delco voters and those who they elect, not consultants or multi-county bodies we cannot address directly with concerns. A Troubling History In 2021, Delaware County's Lima Juvenile Detention Center was shuttered in emergency fashion, after severe abuse of young people detained there was disclosed to the public. A grand jury report, since deleted from the internet by AG David Sunday, details horrific abuse and systemic failures. Of note, one finding that allowed what happened to be possible was that Delaware County had no Juvenile Detention Board of Managers. The full grand jury report can be found here. George W. Hill, the adult counterpart of this facility, has seen numerous deaths of those incarcerated there, and without proper policy interventions for young people, some of them are ending up there. People are being held in pre-trial detention amid dangerous conditions, funded by our tax dollars. We need to do a significantly better job at protecting our youth, especially considering the abuse that happened at Lima Juvenile Detention Center, which is the reason our county is in this position in the first place. The contract under consideration for a twenty-year commitment to youth incarceration is troubling on many different levels. Twenty years is an extraordinary commitment for a system that is supposed to be moving toward less detention. It creates a financial incentive to maintain detention capacity rather than reduce the need for detention. The regional model is premised on shared beds, shared staffing, and shared operating costs. That may solve today's shortage of beds, but it does not solve the underlying question: How do we reduce the number of Delaware County children who need secure detention in the first place? A long-term contractual commitment can make it politically and financially harder to shift resources toward diversion, behavioral health, family support, and community-based alternatives. The fiscal assumptions at this moment are vague at best, and this agreement leaves future consideration up to a multi-county body that we cannot vote out of office if we oppose their approach. Delaware County is being asked to commit to this before a facility even exists and functions, before staff have been hired, and without any kind of plan to keep families connected to their loved ones or properly scrutinize the daily operations of this facility. This is actually a worse plan than the framework under which the Lima facility had to be closed in emergency fashion for rampant abuse of kids. Regional detention addresses the bed shortage, but doesn't address why children are being detained, and there is a real opportunity cost. Every dollar committed to operating a regional detention system is a dollar that cannot be spent elsewhere. Delaware County's own stated juvenile detention mission includes rehabilitation, family engagement, positive youth outcomes, reentry programming, and community connections. A serious alternative analysis should therefore ask: What could Delaware County accomplish over 20 years if a portion of these resources were invested in mental health, diversion, intensive family services, violence prevention, education, and community-based treatment instead? The agreement risks making a temporary statewide capacity crisis into permanent infrastructure. It's time for the young people of Delaware County to get the services and support they deserve, not what is convenient for adults and institutions that continue to fail them. Millions and millions of dollars are being spent on punishment and abuse of young people whose neurological development is not even complete, whose environment directly influences the choices they make, and who endure poor policy choices made by adults every day. Imagine if instead, we spent those precious resources on making their situation whole, on supporting what they need to invest in their own future? What if Delaware County residents engaged collectively in creating those solutions? What if we ensured that mental healthcare was accessible to youth in crisis? What if young people actually had places where they could safely play, study, be kids? In so many of our communities, those spaces are a complete rarity. What if we invested in the programs, non-profits, and policy interventions that support families, educational communities, and neighborhoods to foster public safety? We have a Juvenile Detention Board of Managers, which we went without for years, and the work has only just begun. As a community, we mobilized to deprivatize our prison. We created a county health department. When we work together, so much is possible. When we brush harmful policies under the rug, all of us are harmed, from those most directly impacted to the taxpayer. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/jdbom-20-year-agreement