Iron Range Juvenile Treatment Center to Close

BUHL, Minn. (AP) — A juvenile treatment facility on the Iron Range is preparing to close.

The parent company of Mesabi Academy in Buhl said Thursday it's closing the 123-bed facility at the end of June.

APM Reports, a unit of American Public Media, says the action comes in the wake of decisions by Hennepin and Ramsey counties to remove boys it has placed there, and by the state Department of Corrections to freeze admissions. Those moves came after APM Reports published stories earlier this month chronicling maltreatment allegations and the way Mesabi Academy responded to them.

Mesabi Academy's parent, the Pennsylvania nonprofit KidsPeace, says the closure was a difficult decision because the allegations are untrue. It says the residents still there will be transitioned back to the agencies that placed them.