The center serves girls between the ages of 13 and 20 who need support after parole revocation or probation violations. They stay for up to three months and receive behavioral health resources, mental health and substance abuse treatment, education and medical support.
The short-term stabilization program has been in place for years, but this building is brand new.
Monica Moran, manager of community resources at Oregon Youth Authority, has goals for Klamath Crimson R.O.S.E., which stands for Resilience, Opportunity, Scholarship and Empowerment.
"The ultimate is that the youth stabilizes and then moves on to their next transition, and hopefully it's not an escalation into closed custody or detention, but a return to their community or their next maybe residential program or foster home," she said.
Kids are referred to the center by OYA, but it’s run by Klamath County.
According to an OYA press release, the program "has consistently diverted up to 75% of youth from placement in secure correctional facilities, helping reduce costs and improve long-term outcomes."
Klamath County Commissioner Kelley Minty, who also serves on the state's Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission, said there aren't enough resources available in the state for young women.
"As we started to transition away from more typical 'lock them up and throw away the key' to more of a behavioral health model, it became really clear that was really needed in the state," she said.
She said this program has been really successful in its past 11 years, helping kids who mostly come from outside the county.
"[As a state], we really lack infrastructure to serve youth, so we are very happy to be stepping out as somebody who's attempting to help," Minty said.
According to OYA, the majority of kids in their custody have diagnosed mental health disorders, and most female youth are victims of sexual abuse.
The new center replaces the state’s oldest juvenile detention facility. The Klamath County Juvenile Detention Center has been partially torn down and is still being used for what Minty called "more traditional detention."
The new building has individual bedrooms, gardens, a classroom, arts and music space and therapy rooms. It cost over $16 million and was funded mostly through state bonds.
"The old building feels like a juvenile detention center, and it's not conducive to a therapeutic approach," Minty said. "Also, we were outgrowing it."
The ribbon cutting for the new building was held on July 17, but kids haven't moved in yet. That date hasn't been determined.
A series of recent lawsuits against former Oregon Youth Authority staffers allege they sexually abused juvenile prisoners in youth detention centers.
Moran said OYA's residential programs have contract administrators overseeing them, and providers are routinely audited.
"As we get concerns, whether it be incident reports or reports from family members or youth or our [Juvenile Parole and Probation Officers], it is our job to follow up and coordinate with the program," she said. "As a whole, our approach is always going to be 'lead with youth safety first.' So if there's allegations of misconduct involving Klamath staff, we will do what we need to do to ensure that that potential harm is alleviated."
