NORTH CAROLINA, USA — There are two major issues facing North Carolina juvenile detention facilities: Congestion and staffing shortages.
"They're sleeping on cots and day room floors," William Lassiter, the deputy secretary with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety over Juvenile Justice, said.
Lassiter said staffing in their facilities right now is at a 45% vacancy rate and is calling for additional resources to fill vacancies.
"When you add those two factors together, is a really tough and difficult environment," Lassiter said. "We need to pay the people in the system better and a lot of these people start at $37,000 with a four-year degree and two years of experience."
Lassiter said juvenile detention centers are 35 people over capacity, with Mecklenburg County kids making up about 20% of the total population statewide.
"I feel like we need to have a juvenile detention center in Mecklenburg County," CMPD Chief of Police Johnny Jennings said.
The juvenile detention center in Mecklenburg County was closed in 2022 due to staffing issues, but now there are growing conversations from county leaders about reopening the facility.
"We deal with more juvenile arrest and probably anyone else in the state [and] to take those juveniles to a neighboring county for detention just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," Jennings said.
"We have a lot of resources here so we can support that so when you start talking about intake, we can look at some of those wraparound services juveniles may need," CMPD Deputy Chief over Investigations Tonya Arrington said.
Three new North Carolina detention facilities are set to open this year in Rockingham, Richmond, and Winfall, which will bring in a total of 104 new beds.
State officials are also hoping the 72-bed facility here in Mecklenburg County will also reopen, allowing more kids to receive help from home.
"It will bring more access to families, more access to volunteers that are interested in working with those juveniles, and more access to their legal counsel to work with," Lassiter said.
Contact Tradesha Woodard at twoodard1@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.