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Lawsuit: North Carolina Youth Detention Centers Cope with Understaffing By Sending Kids to Solitary


— October 2, 2024

All of the plaintiffs are minors, and are identified only by “John Doe”-type pseudonyms in court documents. And, together, they say that North Carolina’s juvenile justice system regularly employs solitary confinement as punishment for even trivial disciplinary infractions—and, at times, to overcome administrative obstacles.


A proposed class-action lawsuit claims that North Carolina’s juvenile detention policies can have “devastating and long-term effects” on children entrusted to the state’s justice system.

According to The Carolina Journal, attorneys for the three lead plaintiffs filed their complaint against the Department of Public Safety earlier this year. All of the plaintiffs are minors, and are identified only by “John Doe”-type pseudonyms in court documents.

And, together, they say that North Carolina’s juvenile justice system regularly employs solitary confinement as punishment for even trivial disciplinary infractions—and, at times, to overcome administrative obstacles.

“The guards told me and other kids that they had to keep us in our cells because they did not have enough staffing,” a minor who had been confined at Cabarrus Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Concord told the News & Observer.

Another child, who claims to have to have been sent to solitary as a result of chronic understaffing, said that he had been placed in a small “cell” containing nothing more than a bed, a sink, and a toilet.

Image via Pexels/Pixabay. (CCA-BY-0.0)

“There are often bugs in my cell,” John Doe 2 said. “I regularly kill ants and spiders in my cell and have been bit on the face by insects.”

In the lawsuit, attorneys for Doe 2 say that the boy spent most days confined to his cell. He was allowed out only to make scheduled phone calls, and to take 10-minute showers.

“Other than a 10-minute shower and a 10-minute phone conversation, I was not allowed outside of my cell—even on Christmas day,” Doe 2 claims.

At times, guards would retaliate against children who spent too much time on the phone—or took too long in the shower—by covering the windows on their cells, turning off their water connections, and taking away blankets. Detainees who got in trouble were put on a “shackle plan,” which involved placing restraints on children’s ankles and legs, sometimes for weeks at a time.

The proposed class action notes that all available evidence indicates that placing children in solitary confinement is harmful not only to their emotional well-being but their ability to reintegrate after being released from the state’s custody.

“Over a decade ago, the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence addressed the harmful effects of solitary confinement of children,” the lawsuit states. “The practice was so prevalent and damaging that after an investigation by the United States Justice Department, President Obama banned the use of solitary confinement on juveniles in federal prisons in 2016.”

“Recognizing the harmful effects solitary confinement have on juveniles, over seven years ago, in June 2016, Defendant North Carolina Department of Public Safety (“NCDPS”) announced the end to solitary confinement for inmates in adult correctional facilities who were under 18 years of age,” it says.

The lawsuit contends that the continued widespread use of solitary confinement in juvenile detention centers violates inmates’ Eight and 14th Amendment rights, and asks a court to issue an injunction prohibiting the practice.

“Defendants must be immediately restrained from placing Plaintiffs and the Class in solitary confinement as punishment, discipline, or because there is inadequate staffing, and from placing Plaintiffs in solitary confinement for any reason other than a rare and temporary response to prevent imminent and serious physical harm to persons due to a juvenile’s behavior,” the lawsuit says.

Sources

Class action request says NC locks minors in ‘solitary confinement,’ ‘shackle plan’

Case 1:24-cv-00017

Federal lawsuit challenges solitary confinement at NC juvenile detention centers

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