{"id":5735,"date":"2015-06-17T20:10:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T03:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/?p=5735"},"modified":"2015-06-17T20:10:56","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T03:10:56","slug":"central-park-rec-center-transitions-to-juvenile-detention-facility-for-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/?p=5735","title":{"rendered":"Central Park Rec Center Transitions to Juvenile Detention Facility for Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"juvenile<\/a>The Central Park Rec Center is one of the nicer rec centers in the Denver community. It features a very nice basketball court, a pool, a weight room, fitness rooms, and a lounge area among other things. However, the center has struggled to reach membership goals, and typically is underutilized by the Stapleton community. \u201cWe could use a lot more traffic,\u201d said Central Park Rec Center manager Amanda Kimball. \u201cWe are never near capacity, and it would be nice to have a little more energy, plus obviously, more funding and revenue. So, we worked with the city to close that gap, at least for the summer.\u201d\n\nThe City of Denver has decided to work with the rec center in creating a juvenile detention center at the Central Park location. \u201cWe are essentially busing kids in for eight hours,\u201d said Denver juvenile detention director Mark Beatty. \u201cThey have plenty of space there, and we can control the environment. The kids are from all over Denver, and most have a pretty troubled past. So, we decided to give them a place to hang out, supervised of course.\u201d So far, Beatty is pleased with the results. \u201cWe just seem a lot busier now, which is great,\u201d said busy. \u201cSure, some of it is kids out front smoking, or getting too close to each other in the lazy river, or even kids just sitting around for hours and watching cartoons in the lounge room. But, we have accomplished our goals of being busier.\u201d\nThis may be a success in the eyes of the rec center, but many Stapleton patrons are not pleased with the juveniles loitering at the rec center. \u201cI know they’re supervised, but it doesn\u2019t create a very appealing environment,\u201d said Jennifer May. \u201cIt\u2019s just uncomfortable, and really out of place. If they continue to do this, I will be going somewhere else.\u201d Ben Lima agrees. \u201cWhen I was walking up, I thought I was at the wrong place,\u201d said Lima. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty tacky, and I have to imagine it’s not a long-term answer in regards to memberships. Think about people walking around for a tour, and the staff person telling them they are temporarily housing juvenile delinquents. Who is going to join?\u201d Beatty promises the delinquents will be gone by the time school starts back up again. \u201cWhen school starts in September, they will all be back at their regular facilities,\u201d said Beatty. \u201cIt is just a short time they will be here, and I don\u2019t see any reason members and delinquents can\u2019t co-exist.]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issue-107","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stapletonion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}