Knox County juvenile detention center shows improvement, looking for next leader

KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) - Knox County’s juvenile detention center is showing signs of improvement after months of county oversight. This comes after the county and state found problems under previous leadership of Richard Bean, county officials said.

A state report identified 94 issues at the facility. County leaders said they have fixed about 2/3rds of the problems so far.

“It’s a long process as we’ve talked about. It’s not days and weeks. It’s months and years,” said Knox County Commissioner Larsen Jay.

Knox County chief financial officer, Dwight Van De Vate, said Mayor Glenn Jacobs met with Governor Lee to request state funding for building improvements at the detention center.

“The thought about putting physical dollars into capital improvement to help us get up to speed. Everything from cameras to locking hardware; all of those things that we need to improve on,” said Dwight Van de Vate, Knox County’s chief operating officer.

County officials are evaluating multiple options for permanent leadership of the facility. This includes having the sheriff’s office take over, continued local government control, hiring a private contractor or transferring oversight to Knox County Juvenile Judge Tim Irwin.

Jay said he leans towards Judge Irwin taking control because of the stability of his position.

“Timing is everything, but the goal is to find what is the best model for the next 10 or 20 years and not just for the next election cycle,” Jay said.

Judge Irwin said he’d have some type of plan ready if given this responsibility.

“If it was turned over to me, I’d turn it over to a Superintendent that I had great confidence in, evaluate and have quarterly meetings,” Irwin said.

County officials said they plan to identify permanent leadership as soon as possible, though no timeline has been confirmed.

“It is getting better and we are going to get to a point where we’re back to Square One and we’re putting it on a good foot,” Jay said.

County officials said some things will take months or years to fix at the center.