NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee Department of Children's Services is moving forward with a "real estate strategy" that it hopes will help more kids in state custody.
The plan is two-fold. The state wants to build a new intake facility in Nashville to house abused and neglected kids when they are first taken into foster care.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates discovered dozens of kids were being forced to sleep on the floors of state office buildings because DCS had nowhere to send them.
The other part of the plan includes renovating two Nashville youth detention centers to house some of the state's most violent teens.
The State Building Commission approved money for security upgrades at the Standing Tall youth facility in Bordeaux.
Currently, the state's most violent youth offenders are kept at the Wilder Youth Detention Center outside Memphis. That facility has been plagued with problems including escapes and abusive staff.
DCS Commissioner Margie Quin said Wilder, which was built in the 1960s, was never meant to house the state's most violent offenders.
Quin says DCS needs more beds for dangerous offenders. Many of those troubled teens will be moving to Standing Tall here in Nashville as soon as the facility can be upgraded.
"By making Standing Tall a hardware secure facility, we will be able to house our most challenging young men in a high secure location," Quin told the Building Commission.
The state also approved money for security upgrades at the Woodland Hills facility in Nashville.
The renovations to these two facilities will add 72 additional beds for juvenile offenders in the state's care.
The Building Commission also approved money for a temporary intake and assessment center for children at the Clover Bottom Campus in Nashville.
The intake center will have beds for 48 kids. It's designed to give kids a place to stay until they can be placed with a foster family.
DCS officials said the facility will be the first of its kind in the state and should be ready to take in 24 kids by the end of the month.
The additional 24 beds at the facility will open by the end of the year.
