Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Lawmakers demand answers about Hillsborough juvenile detention center closure

tampabay.com · 7h · first reportShare

A week after the state declared it will close Hillsborough County’s only juvenile detention center, Florida lawmakers are scrambling to learn basic information about the massive change. Still unclear: Where exactly children will go, when they will move and why this is happening so suddenly. State Rep. Dianne Hart-Lowman, D-Tampa, said parents with detained children are calling her office seeking answers she can’t give. Hart-Lowman and other elected officials only learned about the closure through the grapevine with no notification from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. “No legislators really seem to know about it,” said Hart-Lowman, who said state Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, called her to try and figure out what was happening. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice declined to answer specific questions from the Tampa Bay Times about the closure and what it means for families. “It’s interesting that the department says, ‘We’re working with the stakeholders,’” sa