Cole County breaks ground on new juvenile center to meet increasing needs
COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Cole County officially broke ground on its new $14 million juvenile center Tuesday.
“We’ve really outgrown our current facility," Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman said. "That was built 30 years ago.”
The project to get an upgraded facility for the county is more than five years in the making and will meet growing needs.
“In the 21st century, we have some very troubled juveniles. So there's really more of a need now than there was 30 years ago. And that's what we're addressing,” Bushman said.
The current center, the Cole County Prenger Family Center, has only three secure beds for detention and seven beds for emergency care. The new center will have eight cell beds and more homey recreational space.
“We want to make sure that they're [juveniles] not in a state of survival," Cole County Juvenile Court Administrator Tobie Meyer said. "We want them to be comfortable, we want them to feel supported and we want them to be open to change.”
The center provides shelter, food and stability for those needing behavior changes or just a safe home.
"We currently have this in our facility, we have youths, juveniles, who have issues at home. They have no home life," Bushman said. "So we basically become kind of their surrogate parents. And they live there, they have their own rooms, they go to school and we feed them. We kind of take care of them."
The center will not only offer more space for juveniles, but it's in a more preferable location.
“It’s important for it to be centrally located so that children and families can access us when they're needed. We have served many youth who walk to our facility because they need a safe place to go,” Meyer said.
The Cole County Prenger Family Center, is located on Stadium Boulevard in southwest Jefferson City. Meyer said the new juvenile center, located on St. Marys Boulevard in Jefferson City, is better because its central to the county.
The project is expected to be completed in spring 2027.
