New juvenile justice center could be built in south Lansing

A new $40 million Ingham County juvenile justice center, including detention for 24 youths, could be built in south Lansing, a few miles from the current facility.

It’s necessary, said Judge Shauna Dunnings, because the current, 40-year-old youth center is outdated, too small and would be difficult at best to expand while the detention center and youth programs still operated.

However, the new plans would not expand the number of beds, despite a chronic need for more.

Dunnings, the county’s chief probate judge, spoke at a community meeting Wednesday (Oct. 15) at the Ingham County Family Center, 1602 W. Holmes Road, to a crowd that included more than a dozen court and youth workers.

The state has given a $12.5 million grant, and the site would be built on the only county-owned land big enough for the new center, Dunnings said.

“We believe vacant land is the best potential site,” Dunnings said.

The current center was evaluated in a 2022 study by Fishbeck and HDR, both engineering and architectural firms, who found that the center was crowded and outdated, with little ability to upgrade without a shutdown. 

The new youth center would be located on what is now empty land — including a baseball field — behind the Ingham County Family Center. The site was recommended by the county, and a 2024 site feasibility report by Fishbeck gave the county additional data, such as initial soil samples, and confirmed that a design twice the size of the current facility could fit on the property, with room to expand.

The current center is located near Jolly Road and Pennsylvania Avenue. The new center would be built about 2.7 miles away near Holmes Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The  difference of around $27.5 million after the state grant would be covered by a bond issued through the Ingham County Building Authority, said Gregg Todd, the county’s controller and administrator, in an email.

He said additional grants or other funding sources, which have not yet been identified, could reduce the bond amount.

The site has been planned for years. At one point, it would have increased the number of detention beds, but those are now staying at 24 beds, which is well below the number of youths typically detained.

Annette Ellison, deputy court administrator for the juvenile division, said during the meeting that the new building is about better futures for youths. The current building has been deteriorating for years.

She said the building’s problems have gotten worse in the three years since a separate Fishbeck building condition study, which found nine of 23 criteria were in a red condition, meaning the issue is more costly to fix than it is worth, and only four criteria were green, or satisfactory condition.

Ellison said the 2022 study reflected serious concerns by court administrators, and the proposal is only coming up after years of study.

She said one of the common misconceptions about new detention centers is the perception that courts just want to lock up children.

“Over the last few decades, the juvenile division has invested lots of time, resources and money to be a more effective program,” she said. The juvenile division spends most of its money and effort on rehabilitation and other programs that have made Ingham County’s youth center a model across the nation.

“This is not incarceration, we help kids; this is not residential treatment, it’s short-term, statutorily required resources for public safety,” Ellison said. 

She said many of the staff who work with children have spent more than a decade there, and that shows dedication. Many staff members attended the meeting.

A new center would be able to provide dedicated space for those types of programs — from mental health care, food and nutrition, medical, family visits — instead of the current arrangement where every room serves multiple purposes and must be set up and taken down each time, Ellison said.

Larry Johnson, brother of NBA star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, spoke at the meeting and talked about his time at “Mason Community College.”

“You know what that is, right?” he said, referring to a nickname for the county jail.

Johnson said youth centers, when he was one of the kids being served, were sad experiences that could have been used to promote youth reading, like current programs do.

“It’s this small little room, you couldn’t even read a book,” he said. “It’s been 40 years, and when we live somewhere for 40 years, we’ve got to have a change. A new facility would definitely be a change.”

Two residents said they had minor concerns with the project: That officials had not communicated about it previously and that the some of the officials who spoke had mentioned that families of the youth could easily visit them locally in detention.

Michael Lynn Jr. said during the meeting that he wanted to support the full project and sees a lot of good in it but was disappointed to hear officials cast south Lansing as an area where youth would commit crimes and could be incarcerated locally.

He declined to talk after the meeting.

Ryan Sebolt, chair of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, said during the meeting that the next step would be to enter into a lease to manage the project, which would be handled by the Ingham County Building Authority. He said a request for proposals for the management of the project would come first, with design work expected around September 2026, construction ideally beginning early in 2027 and a completion date of around December 2028.

“There are always delays,” Sebolt said, “but I think we have a pretty smart timeline here.”

Dunnings said the meeting was one of the first steps for the county and there is a website – https://yc.ingham.org/courts_and_sheriff/youth_center/new_youth_center_project.php – with more information.

MIKE ELLIS