When $30-million of your taxdollars were invested in turning around Jacksonville's crime problem, reopening the Duval Juvenile Assessment Center was apart of the promise.

Today, our elected leaders from the local and state level were in Jacksonville for the reopening ceremony.

The facility first opened in 1995, but closed in 2005 due to lack of funds in the budget. Since then, Mayor John Peyton says officers have been forced to spend their time driving around with the young suspect until a parent could be located.

But the JAC reopened last October, shortly after the Jacksonville Journey funds were approved in the current budget. And the center has been busy. In just December, over 600 young suspects were arrested and detained there.

There are generally at least ten officers on staff at any given time, and at their busiest hours, they've been responsible for as many as 20 kids at once. If the number gets any higher, more law enforcement can be brought in.

The young suspects are brought in from Duval, Clay and Nassau Counties, charged with anything from theft to murder. The violent and non-violent suspects sit in a common area, and they're generally seperated into male and female groups.

If a child becomes too aggressive, they can be placed in one of four holding cells. In the past few months, officers can only recall those cells being used four times. And because weapons are not allowed at the facility, officers must be trained in self defense.

Funding the facility is the effort of the city, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the state Department of Juvenile Justice. In addition to holding and processing young suspects, resources are available through the center to help troubled families.

The facility has been shutdown and reopened once. The elected leaders say they hope it's something they won't have to do again.