KETCHIKAN — A youth detention center in Ketchikan is closing due to the state’s ongoing budget problems and a low residency rate.
The Ketchikan Daily News reported that over the past decade the Ketchikan Regional Youth Facility has had an average daily population of four youths. The 10-bed facility will cease operations Sept. 15.
Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Valerie Davidson wrote in a letter that the department is considering re-purposing the facility as an unlocked behavioral health residential program, but funding for such a program has not been found.
The City of Ketchikan owns the land the facility is on and ownership of the building will fall to the city after it closes.
The facility opened in 2002 and serves Ketchikan, Saxman, Prince of Wales Island, Wrangell, Petersburg, Kake, Hyder and Metlakatla.
