LINCOLN- State officials are proceeding with plans to move the Hastings Juvenile Chemical Dependency Program out of Hastings. The program will move to a state facility in Lincoln and will continue to treat male juvenile offenders for substance use disorder. This move is the first step in a multi-pronged plan to improve state juvenile offender programs.

State Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings says the decision ignores the Legislature's concerns. He is very concerned about the near 100 workers the Hastings facility employs. The employees have the option to move to the Lincoln facility or move into other jobs within the department.

There are eight teenagers in the program and they will be housed in northeast Lincoln on the Whitehall campus. The plan calls for putting the state's female juvenile offenders in Hastings once the boys moved out. New buildings have been constructed for the program, but have not yet been put to use. They would be moving from the YRTCs in Kearney so that the Kearney campus will return to being an all-male center. the YRTC in Geneva will be shutdown.

The new YRTC Special Oversight Committee, Chaired by Senator John Arch of Papillion expects that lawmakers will talk with DHHS about the plans for the Hastings program.

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