THE NEED

Juvenile crime is a growing issue in our communities. Those who work in the juvenile court system struggle with how to balance punitive measures with rehabilitation. Both approaches merit consideration, and striking the proper balance is key to achieving better outcomes for youth in our system and our community.

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It is the state of North Carolina’s responsibility to hold youthful offenders in secure custody. For many years, Mecklenburg County took on that responsibility. The Mecklenburg facility offered a variety of programming, education, and psychological services to maximize the potential for those youth to find a path towards a crime-free future.  Those working in that system took pride in the good work they were doing and were able to see hundreds of youngsters create a new and better path ahead.

 

HISTORY

From January 2020 through November 2022, the Sheriff of Mecklenburg County operated a juvenile detention center.  He recruited and trained detention officers who wanted to work with youthful offenders.  As a result, Mecklenburg County had a model detention center with a variety of community-based programming. This programming focused on rehabilitative services and interventions. These services were aimed at addressing the root causes of the problems faced by these youth.  The Mecklenburg County juvenile detention center also enabled Mecklenburg youth to stay connected to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), ensuring they remained current with their schoolwork. Additional vocational training was offered, which created new options for these youth to consider upon release.  This detention center was hailed as outstanding and served as a model for other jurisdictions.  The State and County shared in the cost of the detention center, with the Sheriff providing additional support.

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In May 2022, the Sheriff notified the State that he could no longer provide a detention center for our county.  He cited several barriers, with staffing being the most significant. It was necessary to transfer most of his detention officers to the adult jail to correct staffing issues cited during an inspection.  By November 15, 2022, all youth being held at our detention center were transferred to other state-run facilities outside of Mecklenburg County. For a time, Mecklenburg County youth were held in custody across North Carolina. Mecklenburg County youth were held in facilities as far as Butner, Wilmington, and other locations, all of which were a far distance from Mecklenburg County.

These circumstances created some real problematic conditions for our youth:

• Since the COVID-19 pandemic, job markets have shifted, and the State has found itself losing a significant number of staff at its juvenile facilities. Some facilities were only 40% staffed and were over capacity with youth.  This resulted in extended periods of isolation for the youth, including sleeping on boat beds in the day room, limited access to showers, and missing program time.

• Social workers, parents, and attorneys are critically important to supporting youth in detention and were significantly limited in their ability to meet or visit with these youth because of increased distances.

• Transporting these youth to and from Mecklenburg County Courts for their hearings is incredibly expensive, necessitating additional funding that could be used for rehabilitation services. 

Early in 2023, it was brought to the attention of The Children’s Alliance that these problems existed. The concerns were being raised by court officials, advocacy organizations, and others who believed that these conditions created a significant disservice to our youth.  After discussions and supporting research, The Children’s Alliance deemed this issue a priority public policy issue. Our team convened a series of face-to-face meetings that included the County Manager, Assistant County Manager, State Juvenile Justice officials, CMS Superintendent, CMPD Police Chief, Mecklenburg County Sheriff and his key staff, District Court Judges, Attorneys who represent youth in court, City of Charlotte representative, Juvenile Court staff, and others.  In short, those who could resolve this disservice were part of these discussions.

 

Over the course of two years, we have met multiple times in various configurations. Some short-term progress has been made.  The majority of Mecklenburg youth are now held at the Cabarrus County facility, which improves the geographical challenge. Two of the Children’s Alliance member agencies are now providing programs and services to youth who are detained there.  While we consider these small steps, they are noted improvements. The Cabarrus facility remains understaffed. The physical conditions of those buildings are suboptimal. Mecklenburg County students are not being educated by CMS schools, which limits their ability to transition back into the classroom easily.

 

The longer-range goal was to explore the viability of reopening the facility operated by the Mecklenburg Sheriff, known as “Jail North”.  Early in the meeting process, the Sheriff indicated that he did not see a path forward in reopening that facility.  He maintained that he did not have the necessary staff available to reopen, nor did he know a way to recruit, hire, or train the required staff.  

 

Hereafter, The Children’s Alliance continued to convene meetings and discussions, focusing on enhancing programming at the Cabarrus facility, where, as noted above, some progress had been made.

Mecklenburg County’s former County Manager clearly indicated that she did not see it as viable for the County to entertain operating a facility as it had in the past. Going forward, we discussed exploring other options for housing our youth locally.

 

The Children’s Alliance learned that the Sheriff was telling others that he had concerns about a group meeting to discuss juvenile detention in which he was not included. The Sheriff clarified that he had not ruled out operating a facility in the future. The Children’s Alliance contacted and met with him again. He expressed openness to further discussion but mentioned staffing was still a challenge. The Sheriff also expressed trust issues with the State. He agreed to rejoin the discussions the Children’s Alliance was still holding, which included top officials from the State.

 

The first step in these conversations included the Sheriff, members of The Children’s Alliance, and State DJJ officials.  The outcome of that meeting was to tour the adult jail facility and determine if one of the unused pods could be converted for use by juveniles. A meeting was held at Jail Central, and representatives from the State who monitor facilities joined this tour.  The conclusion was that there were significant regulatory issues that would not allow juveniles to be placed in that facility.  The primary issue was “sight & sound” separation, which is mandated by federal law. This means that it would be challenging to ensure that juveniles would always be separated from adult prisoners via sight and sound.

 

The Children’s Alliance proposed a site visit to the vacant Jail North facility, which is the former juvenile detention center operated by the Sheriff for juveniles. A meeting took place there on July 30, 2025. After a tour of the facility, the group believed that this facility was more than appropriate to serve Mecklenburg youth.  It was reported to our group that the facility is currently used for a limited number of administrative offices, canine training, and partially for a summer camp program, as well as storage.

 

After the tour, a meeting took place during which the Sheriff revisited the issues that he had previously identified, which were problematic in terms of his reopening this facility. New issues he identified were his capacity to recruit, hire, and train staff for a juvenile detention program. After a lengthy discussion, the Sheriff agreed to offer a proposal for what it would take for him to reopen the facility to serve up to 72 youth. He indicated he would have that available within a few days.

 

The Children’s Alliance followed up with the Sheriff to determine his progress in developing a proposal.  On August 29th, the Sheriff responded via email that he had determined he would not offer a proposal. Instead, he cited that he has decided to focus on his mandatory functions, particularly staffing his existing programs.

 

NEXT STEPS

The Children’s Alliance is deeply committed to addressing the problems related to Mecklenburg not having a local juvenile detention center. After convening meetings and outreach to a range of public officials over two years, the goal has been to ensure that our court-involved youth have the best opportunities to receive services that will maximize their potential for rehabilitation.  Youth should not simply be “warehoused” in secure custody without programs and services that will prepare them for return into their communities. To be clear, at some point, these youth will return to our community.

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Numerous studies have examined the care of youth within the juvenile justice system and the importance of providing them with proper support.  Without rehabilitative services, the likelihood of entering the adult criminal justice system is heightened. The result is further crimes and significant expense for our communities.  The bottom line is that while we have the attention of juvenile offenders, we must do our best to help them navigate a way to reshape their behavior.  We are not doing that now, which is a missed opportunity.

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The Children’s Alliance understands that the Sheriff of Mecklenburg County is NOT statutorily responsible for providing this service to our youth; the State of North Carolina is.  Mecklenburg County is responsible for 50% of the cost of serving these youth. We have an excellent facility that is currently sitting empty and can serve our youth. The State has offered a proposal to the Sheriff to buy or lease the building, or a portion of it, for detention services.  The Sheriff has not entertained that offer for reasons not fully understood.  The State has also offered an enhanced payment for detention services.  The County has expressed an interest in good faith negotiations to see that our youth are appropriately served.  The City of Charlotte has expressed an interest in partnering with us to ensure the best possible services for our youth.

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The Children’s Alliance intends to continue working to advance this issue. We aim to raise awareness of this issue within our community and foster public and political support to address it. It is clear to us that many officials we have met with understand and support this issue. The challenge will be how to collect those supports in a way that creates public will to invest in our youth. Supporting kids in juvenile detention and helping them not to reoffend is crucial for creating a safer community.