State officials on Thursday, Sept. 14, approved funding for the “first step” in a replacement for the Wilder Youth Development Center in Fayette County and a Department of Children’s Services intake facility in Memphis, among other things.

The State Building Commission approved $19 million toward a 72-bed hardware-secure facility and a 24-bed staff-secure facility to replace Wilder, as well as $88 million for other projects, including a renovation of the former Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Memphis to create a permanent 16-bed assessment center.

The SBC also approved funding allowing DCS to replace the youth detention center in Nashville and to renovate assessment centers and intake facilities across the state for children entering foster care or the juvenile justice system.

Wilder Youth Center getting upgrades, but won’t be replaced yet

“(This funding) lays the groundwork for better care for Tennessee’s most vulnerable children,” DCS Commissioner Margie Quin told the commission, celebrating a “long-term infrastructure solution to serve Tennessee’s kids for the next 50 years.”

Between Thursday’s meeting and one in July — at which short-term upgrades for Wilder, including cameras and security measures, were approved — the commission signed off on Quin’s department’s 11-point real estate plan.

The total cost to replace Wilder and the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville is estimated at $333 million; the SBC approved $19 million to start the process.

“This is an important first step,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) told The Daily Memphian in a brief interview after Thursday's meeting. “There has to be some renovations done over there.”

At the July meeting, Sexton expressed interest in roughly tripling the number of juvenile offenders in detention centers from about 635 to 2,000. Sexton sought to pass legislation treating youth as adults in more circumstances during the August special session on public safety, but it didn’t pass as the Senate refused to pass all but four minor bills.

“I look forward to continued conversations with the governor and the administration about how we can expand the facility and build some other facilities out there on existing land that we currently have,” Sexton said. “We just want to make sure that what we’re doing is cost-effective and that we’re building something that we can have for the next 40, 50 years.”

Nonprofit ministry expanding to Shelby County offers ‘relief valve’ to DCS

Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday visited the DCS office in Nashville to thank child welfare workers. At a press conference after his remarks to workers, he said he was focused on continuing the progress the department has seen since worker pay was increased.

“Sometimes you make a lot of change, and you need to focus on the implementation of that change,” he said.

Lee was noncommittal about Sexton’s desire to increase incarceration.

“I’m interested to see what his proposals end up being, but we do have a real challenge with youth crime and we need to address that,” he said. “We need to provide support to get at the root cause of that, and then we ought to also be looking at the appropriate sentencing for those youth.”

In addition to the DCS real estate plan, the commission approved $63 million for construction at the Western Mental Health Institute in Hardeman County.

The State Building Commission includes Sexton; Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge; Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett; State Treasurer David Lillard and Finance Commissioner Jim Bryson. (Lee and Comptroller Jason Mumpower are also members but were not present Thursday.)

‘Important first steps’: Department of Children’s Services begins to rebuild with higher pay, new housing