High costs for out-of-home placements appear to be something the county’s going to have to get used to.

The county is expecting to pay about $900,000 a year for youth placements in corrections, according to Corrections Director Steve King.

“The projections don’t look good,” he said.

The board is proposing to move corrections’ placements, which have been budgeted as part of the Human Services, to the general budget next year.

Corrections handles placements for youths who’ve committed crimes, while Human Services places children for protective reasons.

About 15 juveniles are currently placed through Corrections in long-term care, plus a few in foster care, according to King.

Even though placements pose high costs, there’s little King can do to lower the numbers. He has little control over who is placed. Often times, judges and police dictate placements.

Still, out-of-home placements of children and teenagers that have committed serious crimes are still raising costs in the department.

“The crimes being committed by the children are more and more adult,” County Attorney Kristen Nelsen said.

Juveniles placements are more expensive than those for adults, according to Human Services Director Julie Stevermer. While jail costs around $80 a day, serious juvenile placements can costs more than $200 a day, she said.

Nelsen said the children driving placement costs in Corrections are surpassing routine mischief or shoplifting.

“These are kids that are doing very bad things and very dangerous things,” Kristen Nelsen said.

The Placements, Nelsen said, are necessary because the these juveniles are committing adult-level crimes, like rape, burglary and drive-by shootings with BB guns.

Nelsen said judges don’t place on a whim.

“Everybody that’s placed is there because they have to be,” Nelsen said.

County Coordinator Craig Oscarson said increases don’t only come from the number of youths committing crimes, they also come from the severity of crime.