Milwaukee County moved one step closer Thursday to establishing a residential treatment center in the county as an option to imprisonment for some male teen offenders.
The County Board's finance committee on Thursday recommended approval of a $2.7 million contract this year to Wisconsin Community Services to run the proposed 24-bed facility.
The board will act on the proposal at its Feb. 1 meeting.
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The county Health and Human Services Department has negotiated a separate lease for a five-story building on Milwaukee's north side that would house the program, officials said. The building is owned by Bishop's Creek Community Development Corp., an affiliate of Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ.
Boys between the ages of 14 and 17 would be placed in the center by a judge only if officials determine they do not require the security of the county detention center or state juvenile prison. Serious juvenile offenders would continue to be incarcerated.
The proposed contract with a private agency follows a two-year search for alternatives to sentencing county youth to the state's troubled Lincoln Hills prison in northern Wisconsin.