Allegheny County Council voted Tuesday to approve a settlement in the lawsuit it filed against the county executive last year over the privatization of the county’s juvenile detention center. 

Council approved the settlement by a 13-1 vote, with one abstention. At-large Councilor Bethany Hallam, a Democrat, was the lone no vote.

Council claimed in the suit that then-Executive Rich Fitzgerald overstepped his authority when he did not seek Council’s approval to award a contract to Adelphoi Western Region to run the facility, which for decades prior had been publicly run.

The settlement leaves the five-year contract in place, but requires that council approve any extension beyond that. The facility opened under Adelphoi’s management in July.

Beyond that, the pact submitted to council outlines:

• Creation of a board to advise and consult with the reopened center, replacing a panel that performed that role when the facility was operated by the county
• Regular data submission by Adelphoi to the new panel
• A process by which council could prevent the county from renewing the agreement in 2028.

It marks a new chapter in the saga of youth incarceration in the county, which was tagged 180 years ago by reformer Dorothea Dix as combining “all the faults and abuses of the worst county prisons in this state, or in the United States.” Since then the county has seen many models of detention and rehabilitation applied to young offenders.

Adelphoi Western Region, part of a Latrobe-based constellation of nonprofits working in the juvenile justice space, has long provided juvenile detention and foster care services in Pennsylvania, and has been hit with negligence lawsuits in recent years.

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

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Update: Allegheny County Council approves settlement of dispute over Shuman Center

by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source
September 10, 2024

<h1>Update: Allegheny County Council approves settlement of dispute over Shuman Center</h1> <p class="byline">by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />September 10, 2024</p> <p>Allegheny County Council voted Tuesday to approve a settlement in the lawsuit it filed against the county executive last year over the privatization of the county’s juvenile detention center.&nbsp;</p> <p>Council approved the settlement by a 13-1 vote, with one abstention. At-large Councilor Bethany Hallam, a Democrat, was the lone no vote.</p> <p>Council claimed in the suit that then-Executive Rich Fitzgerald overstepped his authority when he did not seek Council’s approval to award a contract to Adelphoi Western Region to run the facility, which for decades prior had been publicly run.</p> <p>The settlement leaves <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-shuman-juvenile-detention-center-contract-adelphoi-beds/">the five-year contract</a> in place, but requires that council approve any extension beyond that. The facility opened under Adelphoi’s management in July.</p> <p>Beyond that, the <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-shuman-center-council-executive-adelphoi-lawsuit-settlement/">pact submitted to council</a> outlines:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Creation of a board to advise and consult with the reopened center, replacing a panel that performed that role when the facility was operated by the county</li> <li>Regular data submission by Adelphoi to the new panel</li> <li>A process by which council could prevent the county from renewing the agreement in 2028.</li> </ul> <p>It marks a new chapter in the <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/shuman-juvenile-detention-allegheny-county-history-jail-youth/">saga of youth incarceration in the county</a>, which was tagged 180 years ago by reformer Dorothea Dix as combining “all the faults and abuses of the worst county prisons in this state, or in the United States.” Since then the county has seen many models of detention and rehabilitation applied to young offenders.</p> <p>Adelphoi Western Region, part of a Latrobe-based constellation of nonprofits working in the juvenile justice space, has long provided juvenile detention and foster care services in Pennsylvania, and <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/adelphoi-allegheny-county-shuman-center-class-action-lawsuit-negligence/">has been hit</a> with negligence lawsuits in recent years.</p> <p><em>Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at </em><a href="mailto:charlie@publicsource.org"><em>charlie@publicsource.org</em></a><em>.</em></p></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/shuman-center-juvenile-detention-allegheny-county-lawsuit-settlement-council-vote/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1308643&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/shuman-center-juvenile-detention-allegheny-county-lawsuit-settlement-council-vote/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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