Clarke County juvenile center closes doors

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Detention Officer Ashley Alcott opens a door to the former Clarke County Juvenile Detention Center in Osceola. The center closed Monday, forcing counties like Union to refer juveniles to more-costly locations like Des Moines and Council Bluffs. (Osceola Sentinel-Tribune photo by MELISSA BROWNRIGG)

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OSCEOLA — Just seven months after opening, Clarke County Juvenile Detention Center closed Monday after referrals of delinquent juveniles trickled down to less than one a week.

The closed center will cost eight employees their jobs and means troubled youth will have to travel farther away from home to serve their detention sentence — leaving counties like Union with no choice but to incur additional costs associated with transferring juveniles to these locations.

Blake Lauffer, juvenile court officer in the Juvenile Court Services’ 5th District based in Creston, said area juveniles will now be referred to Polk County Juvenile Detention Center in Des Moines or Council Bluffs’ Southwest Iowa Juvenile Detention Center.

• Read more of this story in the Feb. 4 edition of the Creston News Advertiser.

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