In late September, Disability Rights North Carolina’s Education team, including attorneys Glynnis Hagins and Elijah Moffe, hosted a community event in Durham about DRNC’s report on the Durham County Youth Home, a juvenile detention facility. The event shared more details about our monitoring findings, featured a panel discussion with people with lived experience and expertise, and included an open forum for questions, planning, and organizing with the Durham community.
We were thrilled to see everyone who came out to support the event and look forward to continuing to partner on develop meaningful solutions to the problematic conditions we reported on.
Background: Between September 2024 and September 2026, DRNC monitored the Durham County Youth Home, the juvenile detention center (JDC) for Durham County. Among other issues, our monitoring found that youth in the facility were regularly confined to their cells for 22 to 24 hours per day, which meets the standard for solitary confinement. Solitary confinement has been repeatedly shown to have severe mental health impacts, especially on children. Read our recent report: Behind Locked Doors – Inside North Carolina’s Juvenile Detention Centers – DRNC and update : Supplemental Durham County Youth Home Monitoring Report – DRNC
The INDY (a Durham-based weekly newspaper) recently covered DRNC’s new report on conditions at the Youth Home, as well as our community event. They reported, “Children previously reported to DRNC that they had been placed in ‘the Hole’—a cell without a bathroom, bedding, or clothing—in response to mental health crises or for disciplinary reasons. The use of the Hole has since ceased, DRNC found on their September visit, and children are brought out of their cells for at least six hours on weekdays to complete their schoolwork.” However, as the INDY article summarized, this progress has not translated into meaningful education. Children are in class about six hours a day but receive little real instruction. Teachers serve as placeholders, special education plans are not being implemented, and there is no system to identify students with disabilities. The report also documents ongoing violations of state juvenile justice policy, including random strip searches, monitored phone calls, and too little recreation time.
Read the full INDY coverage: Report: Detained Students in Durham Aren’t Getting ‘Meaningful Instruction’ Report: Detained Students in Durham Aren’t Getting ‘Meaningful Instruction’