Letter: County Board Member on Loss of Juvenile Detention Center

Dear Editor,

I am sad to say the residents of DuPage County lost an outstanding Detention Center this past week. This center ran a program that has been modeled throughout this country and had been in existence for over 40 years. 

The Kane County Board voted to allow DuPage County Juvenile Center to shut down and send their inmates over to Kane County. The shame of it all was that I feel that this vote was not based on program performance or what is best for our juveniles, but instead it was based on saving a dollar. What should have been considered was that because the program at the center was working, this is why the population at the center was down and has continued to decline over the past years. This is due in large part from the program network system formed between the judicial branch of the county, the police departments throughout DuPage and the Juvenile Detention Center. 

The bottom line is members of this board shut down this program that has provided an outstanding service to our youth without considering program performance and without thinking about the youth of this county or their families and what this means to them, but instead wanted to save a dollar.

I am proud of the board members that stood with me on this issue and fought to save this program. The only losers on this vote are our youth.

Thank you to all of the residents that came out to voice their opinion on the closing of this facility. Remember, government exists to serve the people to insure a better quality of life for all.

Dirk Enger

DuPage County Board District 6