50-449.

Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva; legislative findings.

The Legislature finds that in the summer of 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services notified the Health and Human Services Committee of the Legislature of deteriorating conditions at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva. Such conditions necessitated the relocation of female youth from the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva due to living conditions posing a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the female youth residing at the facility under court order. The Health and Human Services Committee of the Legislature found, through a series of public hearings and comments during the 2019 interim, that there was a breakdown in the day-to-day operations of the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva, including (1) disrepair of the facilities making them uninhabitable, (2) inadequate staffing, (3) a lack of proper behavioral or mental health services and treatment programming, and (4) a lack of health care, including, but not limited to, medication management. The Department of Health and Human Services has released a business plan to reorganize the youth rehabilitation and treatment center model in Nebraska on a condensed timeline without consultation or input from the Legislature or stakeholders with experience and expertise in youth rehabilitation and treatment. The safety, quality of life, and right to a safe treatment environment for these youth is of the utmost concern to the Legislature, and it is clear the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva has reached a critical point in its ability to care for the female youth entrusted to its care.