MIDLAND, Texas — An architect has presented a plan for redoing the Barbara Culver Juvenile Center to the Midland County Commissioners.
Creating this plan has been in the works for a couple of years now, and Monday the county got a look into what the juvenile center could look like if the county residents and leaders decide to go through with building it.
Like the county jail, the Barbara Culver Juvenile Center in the county is in need of a makeover.
"There's really nothing you can do to make trauma informed care into the future that we need, it's just not feasible," said Forest Hannah, Executive Probation Officer at the Juvenile Center.
The four phase plan would bring in a lot of light, rooms to be active, art rooms and a place where it's easier to heal, change and grow.
"The impact with that repeated trauma really causes some deep seeded developmental issues, trust issues and mental health and so you build a facility where instead of a jail it's trauma form care designed, but the purpose is to keep them incardinated there for a short time or a long time but the environment is more conducive in meeting their needs," said Hannah.
The current juvenile center would still house current detainees and the new buildings would be built around it. The big question is how much it would cost to build?
"The bottom line is the commissioners all would support it, they know we have the need, it's just how do we get it paid for," said Hannah.
The total estimated cost when everything is said and done is around $34 million so right now it's about looking for where to get that money.
"There are some foundations here that have been very generous and so approaching the foundations if there's a public private collaboration, approaching the state as I mentioned to get some operational funds and also approaching out local legislators." said Hannah.
Right now there are no official plans to build this facility, this was just one of the steps.