ABERDEEN, WA – For the past few weeks, Kendrick Rochelle has been going to Washington’s overcrowded youth prison in Chehalis to build relationships with the young men held there.

Rochelle is trying to recruit them to join a leadership program at a new juvenile detention center called Harbor Heights on the grounds of an adult prison near Aberdeen, where he’ll serve as superintendent. Harbor Heights is set to open June 9.

He eats lunch with the young men incarcerated at Green Hill School, and just tries to be consistently present. At first, some were skeptical. But Rochelle says he’s been getting two or three applications per day from the men trying to get out of the poor conditions at Green Hill and better themselves.

Rochelle, who grew up without a father, started his career as a correctional officer before moving into criminal justice leadership roles in Ohio, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.

The goal of his visits is to “show them a man with the same background as them that made it,” he said.

State officials showed off Harbor Heights on Thursday. The facility will start with eight men transferring from Green Hill, growing to a maximum capacity of 46 by the end of the fall, state Department of Children, Youth and Families Secretary Tana Senn said.

Harbor Heights will be open to those between the ages of 18 and 25 who are considered medium security.

While on the Stafford Creek Corrections Center campus, Senn’s agency will run the facility. Department of Corrections Secretary Tim Lang likened his agency to a landlord.

Harbor Heights will be a six-month rotation with perks for those chosen to move there. Each man will get his own room, with a small TV.

Each room has a window, one of the biggest renovations made to the former adult prison isolation unit. The windows were previously opaque frosted glass.

The facility has drawn criticism from some who say retrofitting the long-unused Department of Corrections unit is like “putting lipstick on a pig.” The unit toured Thursday features painted aquamarine accents, rooms filled with board games and books, photographs of beach scenes and motivational quotes throughout.

“Welcome to the Harbor; where your future will take you to new Heights,” reads one.

While at Harbor Heights, the young men will be able to develop leadership skills, receive therapy and learn to be a mentor before either returning to Green Hill or being released from custody. They’ll also have expanded opportunities for visitors and access to a three-quarter-acre yard.

Senn sees potential for “a hopeful place that provides a vision for what community can be” after release.

The facility provides small relief for the overcrowding that has enveloped Washington’s juvenile detention system. At Green Hill, one of the state’s two prisons for juvenile offenders, the population has fluctuated between 220 and 240, despite a safe operational capacity of 180, for many months.

For the young people held there, who are 17 and older, this has meant unsafe conditions wrought with fights and drugs, as well as more time isolated in their rooms without enough staff to supervise the programs that tend to make juvenile facilities more appealing than prisons.

The crowding has come amid ballooning juvenile crime, with state law also changing in recent years to send young adults convicted of crimes committed under age 18 to youth detention, instead of adult prison, until they turn 25.

Senn, a former state representative, calls the Harbor Heights opening an “important start.”

“This is not going to solve the overcrowding issue at Green Hill,” she acknowledged, noting her old colleagues in the Legislature need to provide money for additional capacity.

The two-year budget Gov. Bob Ferguson signed last week included $25 million to run Harbor Heights, but lawmakers failed to deliver a policy solution to address the broader crowding crisis, despite bipartisan interest.

Lawmakers set aside another $3 million to scout new medium-security juvenile detention facilities. One top prospect has been a minimum-security women’s prison in Mason County, which is slated for closure.

But any new facility would be at least four years out, Senn has said.

This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.