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Show ill M'ImSSM I OF RIP -RAF Vfei If 111 GOODCnV... 0 Farmington really want? Once again the entire state knows what Farmington doesn't want This time Farmington doesn't want a youth detention facility. "I've got all of that I want, more than what I want, ' said Farmington Mayor Robert Arbuckle. Is he afraid property values would decline? It's hard to imagine that would happen based on the fact that the 300-bed jail is already there. The damage to property values has already occurred. What does Farmington want? Farmington also doesn't want rock and roll played in its parks. It doesn't want a halfway house for troubled teens. It doesn't want Lagoon to expand. Its citizens didn't want Kmart, they suggested a Nordstrom in its place. And these are the things Farmington hasn't wanted just in the last year. Farmington apparently wants to be Wonderland, where there are no problems and everyone dresses in designer jeans. It's not going to happen. Farmington is most likely part of the problem. Each year over 2,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 19 pass through the current youth detention facility, MOWEDA. Director Di-rector Pat Lambert said nearly SO percent of them are Davis County youth. They are there on a variety of charges from petty theft to criminal homicide. The overcrowding at MOWEDA creates serious problems for its residents. There is no way to separate the population in a facility designed for 17 that at times has housed up to 56. In some cases there is no way to separate the female and male offenders. 'We have at times had to house boys in the girls' wing because all of the boys' cells are full," said Lambert. Studies show MOWEDA is over capacity 72 percent of the time. Lambert said the population at MOWEDA has no commonality. No socio-economic similarities. Some shop at Kmart, some at Nord- Strom. He added that often parents will refuse to take the responsibility of their child. "They want to bail out on their kids because they say they can't handle them," he said. He added one of the reasons for the request to build a new facility would be to help implement programs pro-grams to help parents deal with difficult youth. Lambert said it is important for the youth to be housed hous-ed near their home, school, family and clergy all of which have a part in helping the youth overcome unwanted un-wanted behavior. Lambert said he often receives calls from parents who want their child incarcerated. MOWEDA does not accept youth who have not committed what would have been a criminal offense if the youth were an adult These parents are doing just what Farmington is doing. They are part of the problem, but they do not want to be part of the solution. Davis County is not Never-Never Land. Things do go wrong here. Kids do make mistakes. Let's stop pretending we're perfect and end the diatribe we're always subjected to when our "dirty "dir-ty laundry" is looking for a home. Let's give our kids a second chance in the very best place for that second se-cond chance to work. If it's Farmington, Farm-ington, so be it. |
