Puppeticians Push to Reopen Abusive Pittsburgh Juvenile Youth Prison to Put Black Teens in Greater Confinement

From [HERE] In 2021, Pittsburgh’s Shuman Juvenile Detention Center was closed after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services uncovered numerous instances of abuse and neglect of children at the facility. Now, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and members of the Allegheny County Council are pushing for a reopening of the facility to address an alleged spike in youth crime. County funds for the youth prison have since been reallocated, and politicians are now looking to reopen the center under the auspices of private shareholders instead of the county government.

Situated in the primarily Black neighborhood of Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar, Shuman Center’s nearly 50-year history had been marred with controversy. Years of allegations of mistreatment by staff culminated in a heroin overdose occurring in the facility in August 2021 that was not treated for nearly an hour before paramedics arrived. The center had been operating under provisional licenses since 2015 due to the large number of complaints it received, and it continued to see an increase in violations before the license was fully revoked shortly after the overdose. The center acted as a punitive measure against impoverished youth and youth of color, often as the beginning of a long cycle of incarceration. Similar trends have been seen across the United States, the country with the highest youth incarceration rates in the world. 

Since its shutdown, local politicians and business owners have complained that Shuman’s absence has led to an uptick in violent crime amongst youth downtown. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Ed Gainey, and his administration see this carceral philosophy totally in line with their recently unveiled “Plan for Peace,” a campaign to reduce violent crime in the city of Pittsburgh. So far, the campaign has primarily resulted in a tripling of police presence in downtown, low-income and predominantly Black neighborhoods, and strict curfews proposed for youth in these same areas. At a news conference on a triple homicide shooting in October, before the information of any suspects had been released, Gainey inexplicably blamed the closure of the former Shuman Center. He stated, “We should have never closed Shuman without a plan.”