Fear mongers would have residents of Great Valley believe a maximum-security prison housing hard-core criminals will be in their backyards if the state Office of Children and Families’ Great Valley Residential Center is converted to a limited-secure youth facility, but it’s just not true!

This will not be a secure center housing New York’s worst juvenile offenders.

This will not have an imposing, monolithic structure. It will have small-scale buildings appropriate to the small number of youths receiving treatment there.

The new facility would be the same size as the current Great Valley Residential Center which has only 25 beds.

Twenty-five youths from western New York are being treated in limited-secure facilities in other parts of the state. The latest research in juvenile justice shows it is better to treat youths­ in small facilities near their homes.

Don’t be fooled by the scare tactics. Let’s do what’s right for our kids and bring them back to western New York. Let’s do what’s right for our community and maintain jobs.

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This ad was created by the PEF PR department and appeared as a black & white advertisement of March 30, 2008 in the Olean Times. © Copyright 2008.