A Disability Rights NC report says five of the state's juvenile detention centers hold residents in solitary confinement. (Photo courtesy of Disability Rights NC)
Five juvenile detention centers in North Carolina keep youth locked in cells nearly all day, according to a new report from the advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina.
The findings were based on nearly 400 interviews with youth in juvenile detention between July 2024 and August 2025.
Youth sent to detention are waiting for their juvenile court cases to be held, sentencing in adult court, or placements in group homes or psychiatric residential treatment facilities. Youth admitted to juvenile detention in 2024 ranged in age from 11 to 20, according to the report, with most between the ages of 13 and 17.
Conditions and confinement practices varied widely among the 13 juvenile detention centers.
Disability Rights identified five centers that use solitary confinement: Cabarrus, Cumberland and Dillon, which are state-operated; and Durham County Youth Home and the Guilford Juvenile Detention Center, which are operated by those counties according to state rules. Youth at those centers said they were locked in their cells from 20 to 24 hours a day.
Extended time in solitary confinement can cause long-lasting damage to mental health and make existing conditions worse.
The average stay in a juvenile detention center in 2024 was 39 days, according to a state report. That has increased steadily over a decade. The average stay in 2015 was 15 days.
In a December letter to Disability Rights attorney Cari Carson, the state administrator in charge of juvenile justice centers said none use solitary confinement.
“As we have previously stated, the use of solitary confinement is not practiced in any North Carolina Juvenile Justice setting,” Deputy Secretary for Juvenile Justice William Lassiter said in the Dec. 18 letter. The centers do use “room confinement” for youth “following an incident that jeopardizes the safety of themselves or others,” he wrote. Youth are carefully monitored when confined to their rooms, Lassiter wrote.
Disability Rights visited Durham County Youth Home three times between September 2024 and July 2025. A visit in February 2025 followed information it received about a “lockdown” at the facility, which the advocacy group confirmed. Youth were in their cells nearly around the clock, were allowed seven-minute showers and had largely stopped attending school.
Facility administrators told Disability Rights in April 2025 that the lockdown had been lifted. But a July 2025 monitoring visit found confinement conditions largely unchanged.
“Youth consistently reported 22.5-24 hours spent in their cells daily, and the mental health impacts were apparent,” the report says. “Multiple youth repeatedly and desperately relayed that their solitary confinement was deteriorating their mental health, causing them to be severely depressed and anxious; the confinement also exacerbated existing mental health needs, and ultimately, left the youth feeling dehumanized.”
A January letter from Durham County Youth Home Assistant Director Sheila Bratts to Carson said assertions that youth spend more than 22 hours a day in their cells were not true.
Residents rotate in and out of their rooms between 8:30 am and 10 pm each day, Bratts wrote. Residents’ time out of their rooms is based on the number of groups that must be rotated in and out, she said. Youth are separated into different groups to avoid conflicts.
“Staff, at times, must have very small groups, for the individual safety of each resident, which could reduce the amount of overall recreational time each group receives,” Bratts wrote. “These necessary, safety-based housing decisions can affect when and how residents are able to participate in shared activities, programming, or recreation outside of their rooms.”
Disability Rights found three centers where youth spent all day or nearly all day outside of cells.
Richmond-Jenkins Juvenile Detention Center has no cells or room doors, and youth spend their days in communal pods.
Likewise, youth at detention centers in Rockingham and Alexander spend most of the day or nearly all day outside cells, the report said.
The report identified five other facilities that fell between the two extremes, with youth spending 1 hour to 7 hours outside their cells.
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