(Radio Iowa) – A local official is calling for changes at the State Training School for Boys in Eldora. Hardin County Supervisor B-J Hoffman says the school should no longer be part of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. “We’ve asked that the state of Iowa transition the State Training School to the auspices of the Department of Corrections and put some actual security out there,” Hoffman says, “where they can stand up and not take a beating from these young men and there’d be some consequences.” Hoffman says Hardin County taxpayers are footing the bill for the response when juveniles at the facility get violent.

“It’s just a revolving door of charges and law enforcement presence at that facility,” Hoffman says. Minors who’ve committed crimes and declared delinquent in juvenile court are placed in the State Training School for Boys. In 2020, a federal judge ordered staff to quit using extended periods of solitary confinement and a full-body canvas wrap as discipline. A 2021 consultants report found mental health treatment and behavior modification had improved at the facility, but student assaults on other students continued to escalate. Hoffman, the Hardin County supervisor, says a number of violent offenders has jumped dramatically.

“That amount of violence has caused the Hardin County Attorney’s Office to be significantly more engaged than we ever have before,” Hoffman says. Hoffman says it’s interfering with the day-to-day operations at the Hardin County Attorney’s Office. According to the county’s website, there are two attorneys, a legal secretary and a paralegal working in the county attorney’s office.