BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center was awarded funding for improvement projects. 

Director of Juvenile Services and Detention Center, Dr. Tamiara Wade, says she reached out to the state legislature and asked for $900,000 to address the facility's needs. They were awarded $200,000, which will go toward fixing aging infrastructure in the facility.

"The Juvenile Detention Center was built in 1952. So, it's a 73-plus-year-old building that requires preventive maintenance. So we certainly thought that if it was an opportunity to request additional funding outside of city-parish and what could be provided, then we would reach for that opportunity," Director of Juvenile Services and Detention Center, Dr. Tamiara Wade, said.

Dr. Wade says they previously started work on upgrades for the facility, but couldn't finish every project.

"And as with any list, there was not enough funding to go across the board," Dr. Wade said.

The funding will go towards replacing or repairing the outdated HVAC, electrical systems, and plumbing.

"These systems have gone through an extreme number of cycles. When you look at the plumbing - this is the original plumbing to the facilities, and there's been no major upgrades since the construction of he facility," City-Parish Director of Buildings and Grounds, Joseph Butler said.

East Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Daryl Hurst says any dollar that goes to properly funding and improving a city-parish building is a step in the right direction.

"But it's still putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. We're at the point where both the jail and the juvenile detention center are really beyond repair. It's more so putting money into it until we get to where we need to be," he said.

In the past, the poor conditions at the facility led to teenagers escaping from the detention center. In November of 2023, 17-year-old David Atkins broke out of the facility twice.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit learned that Atkins and another teen were able to escape after moving to a part of the facility where the doors were broken and climbing through a hole in the wall. The escapes lead to security upgrades and calls for a new juvenile detention center.

"Having humane facilities is important because the message that it sends is that you are innocent until proven guilty. And when you put them in treacherous situations, I think it says the opposite, that we're guilty until we are proven innocent," Hurst said.

There is currently a task force working on plans for a new juvenile detention center.