Thirty-four Hillsborough County children now sit in detention facilities across four other counties. The state closed the county's only juvenile lockup in late August with no replacement plan.

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice shut down the 80-bed Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center. The land is slated for development around a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium, which local officials voted to approve the week before the Tampa Bay Times reported Sept. 3 on the fallout inside Hillsborough courtrooms. The closure affects families across the county, including in Apollo Beach and Ruskin, where Judge Denise Pomponio hears juvenile cases on the Hillsborough County Circuit Court.

The consequences showed up in court immediately. A 16-year-old girl charged with battery, who had agreed to a diversion plan, woke up on her court date in the Pinellas County juvenile detention center. She was shackled and driven across the bay to the Hillsborough courthouse on Twiggs Street.

After her case concluded, court officials could not release her. Her personal belongings were still in Pinellas County, and she could not leave in detention-center clothing, a security requirement.

The girl's father said in court that the family just wanted to bring their daughter home. "If it is the difference of us being able to take our daughter home today and an outfit, we want to take our daughter home," he said, according to the Times.

Judge Kim Brennan called a recess to sort out the impasse. She agreed to order the girl returned somewhere in Hillsborough County rather than transported back to Pinellas.

At least two detained children were sent as far as Brevard County on Florida's East Coast, the Hillsborough County state attorney's office reported at an Aug. 21 juvenile justice advisory board meeting, according to the Times. Irene Maslanik, chief of the juvenile division for the state attorney's office, told the board she did not think anyone had addressed the trauma and stress on the children and that no plan existed to handle it.

Hillsborough County Public Defender Lisa McClain told WFLA on Aug. 20 that her office was not consulted before the closure was announced. Her office has eight attorneys assigned to juvenile cases who regularly met with children at the local facility. Those lawyers now face long drives to maintain confidential, in-person contact with their clients.

Robert Parkinson, Hillsborough County's criminal justice liaison and vice chair of the juvenile justice advisory board, organized a hastily arranged Microsoft Teams call on a Friday afternoon with about 30 people, including school staff, child welfare workers, a judge, a prosecutor and the public defender. Parkinson told the group he apologized for the timing and said most of his information about the closure had come from the newspaper, according to the Times.

The department issued a statement calling the closure "long planned" and said officials were working with local stakeholders. The Times found that locally, officials had been caught off guard. A department spokesperson did not return a request for comment for the Sept. 3 story, the Times reported. The governor's office also declined to answer questions about the closure or a potential connection to the Rays stadium project, according to the Times.

A document obtained by state Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, showed a project to replace the detention center was delayed after the original replacement site was "deemed unsuitable," according to the Times. No timeline for a replacement facility has been announced.

The juvenile justice advisory board voted Aug. 21 to create a committee to address the closure's impact. Residents can contact the Hillsborough County criminal justice liaison's office for updates.