The future of the Natrona County Juvenile Detention Center is uncertain if Cornerstone Programs, Inc., the private corrections company charged with running the facility, terminates its yet-to-be-signed contract with the county.

Cornerstone may have to pull out of its contract because of financial difficulties related to low inmate populations, the company's CEO Joseph Newman told county commissioners Thursday.

The declining population at the JDC has caused Cornerstone, a relatively small corrections business, to lose large sums of money - about $35,000 to $40,000 per month over a six-month period - something the company can't sustain for long, Newman said.

A major reason for the drop in population is the low number of juveniles referred to the facility by the Department of Family Services. DFS has sent about half its usual number of inmates since Cornerstone took over for Frontier Corrections in March, leading the company's officials to believe DFS is withholding juveniles.

But Juliette Rule, public information officer for DFS, said it's the department's intention to reduce the number of out-of-home placements for juvenile offenders in general, not just those sent to Natrona County's JDC.

The shift comes after the 2008 Kids Count report, released in June, suggested Wyoming's rate of detained and committed youth ranked second in the country at 334 per 100,000 children. Nationally, that figure stood at 125.

"It's our feeling that detention has been overused. As the agency moves forward and as communities move forward, we want to keep kids in their homes and in their home school districts," Rule said.

It's long contended, she said, that youth sent outside of their home school districts are less likely to succeed. Out-of-home placements are also expensive, she added, noting that each juvenile detained in a facility costs between $130 and $150 per day.

While DFS isn't specifically targeting the detention center, Rule said, the agency doesn't plan to begin sending more juveniles to the facility.

"We suspect we'll hear similar complaints from other facilities. We're just not kicking kids to the curb anymore," she said. "We'll see the benefits, I know we will, of keeping kids in their home school districts and keeping them local."

Sheriff Mark Benton said future decisions about the JDC will be the responsibility of the county commissioners, who could decide to place the sheriff in control of the facility.

There was a short transitional period about 10 years ago when off-duty deputies were paid overtime to work in the detention center, Benton said, but he's not sure how the new situation will be handled.

"It's kind of an unknown, but it's the county commissioners' decision to make," he said, adding that he hopes the commissioners will work something out to keep Cornerstone in place "because they're a very professional company. I'm pleased with what they've brought to the table."

Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0589 or megan.lee@trib.com