State Rep. Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) issued the following statement after hearing testimony in the House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare System on Tuesday last week about the closure of the Shawano Center and limited number of residential placement opportunities in the state. The Shawano Center was the only state-run facility for male juveniles and since its closure in February, a new facility has not opened.

“There is a clear and present need for residential providers in the juvenile justice space, whether state-run or privately operated. The closure of the Shawano Center saw the elimination of the state’s only facility for male juveniles and this decision is having an impact on the state’s whole youth residential care system.

“The Shawano Center closed in February and a new facility hasn’t even opened. On top of that, when MDHHS decided to close Shawano, it displaced a private residential provider that had been treating youth for mental health and substance abuse disorders. This is the same provider MDHHS celebrated opening in November 2023 and roughly 18 months later, MDHHS takes over the facility. The whole ordeal was mismanaged from the beginning – MDHHS closes a facility, needs a new building, and eliminates a residential provider so it can take over its space.

“Not only did the decision to close Shawano force a provider to stop its services, it also eliminated the only state-run facility where the justice system could send its juvenile justice youth. Where juveniles have been sent since the February closure, I have no idea. We need to know where the juveniles at Shawano went after closure. I had a court official in my committee saying that those juveniles were sent back into the community before they were ready and its entirely unacceptable. It is my firm belief that when MDHHS closed Shawano, the state sacrificed its responsibility to support these juveniles’ rehabilitation.

“The governor’s budget recommendation doesn’t even begin to address the problem; it throws money at it with a hope and a prayer. The new proposed facility will be costly; they’ll be paying rent, starting over, and we’ll have to wrestle with this through the budget process.