Kaufman County commissioners Tuesday approved purchasing a $48,000 feasibility study on whether to build a new juvenile detention facility.

The action came after a number of county officials laid out problems and concerns with the current system for housing juvenile offenders.

Chief county juvenile probation officer Laura Peace said her office is dealing with a growing number of young offenders. She described her office as a pressure cooker as the number of juvenile offenders grew by 40% over the previous year.

As it stands now, Kaufman County contracts with seven separate agencies for juvenile detention services, one of which is all the way in Marshall.

“It’s just a bad situation, and you’re not hearing about it because we’re doing our jobs,” Peace told commissioners. “The police are doing their jobs. We’re getting into a situation where officers are not going to be able to lock up every kid they think needs to be locked up because they may not be able to do the transport.”

The Terrell Police Department tallied 146 juvenile offenses between Jan. 1, 2019 and April 1, 2021.

District Attorney Erleigh Wiley also stated the need for Kaufman County to come to grips with the situation, saying a juvenile detention center is needed now.

Peace noted that Dallas County, for instance, is accepting fewer kids from Kaufman County. She cannot, she said, compel another county to accept Kaufman County’s juvenile offenders. Sometimes the young offenders have to be turned loose.

“If you have your own facility, you control your own fate. You don’t have to contract with anyone,” explained Peace.

Court-at-Law Judge Tracy Gray, who handles many juvenile cases, said she’s has to assign ankle monitors to some young offenders because there is no space for them. She fears some of them will run away. Just that morning, two kids had cut off the monitors and “they’re in the in the wind,” Gray said.

In the end, Peace said, having a detention center for juveniles will lead to more positive outcomes.

“These are the county’s kids. If they’re here form the minute they walk in the door we can start working with them to hopefully lessen the chances that they go further into the system,” said Peace. “Dallas County? It’s a traumatic experience. The things we could do, the treatment we could do just from the initial intake could change lives. I have no doubt if we have our own detention center we’re going to change the lives of kids in this county for generations. If we have our own detention center, we’re going to change the lives of kids here in Kaufman County. That’s not an overstatement.”