Teenagers in North Carolina’s juvenile justice system are routinely being locked alone in their rooms for as much as 23 to 24 hours a day, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit and advocates for young people in custody, despite state officials’ own acknowledgment of research showing that prolonged isolation causes mental and physical harm.
“Sometimes it makes me scream in my cell,” said one of the plaintiffs, a 16-year-old who has been housed at a juvenile detention center in Cabarrus County, in a statement describing his experience with isolation.
This story is part of a project by Rachel Crumpler, a Report for America reporter with North Carolina Health News, examining the use of solitary confinement in North Carolina’s justice system. The project is supported by a collaboration with Report for America and Investigative Editing Corps.
“We’re a small news outlet and we don’t have a lot of bandwidth for facilitating deep investigative reporting. Thanks to the Investigating Editing Corps, NC Health News was able to bring to light important injustices happening in North Carolina’s juvenile justice system.
-Rose Hoban
IEC editor Melanie Sill guided our reporter Rachel Crumpler through the process of sharpening her focus, finding relevant data and documents and honing in on how to craft the stories of young people who are being traumatized by extensive time spent in solitary confinement,
a practice that’s considered torture under international law, yet often done for the convenience of prison staff.”
Editor | North Carolina Health News
Editors: Melanie Sill
Melanie Sill has been a leader and change-maker in senior executive roles at The News & Observer of Raleigh, Sacramento Bee, and Southern California Public Radio/KPCC. At The N&O, she edited high-impact investigations including “Boss Hog: NC’s Pork Revolution,” which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Melanie was the founding executive director of the NC Local News Workshop at Elon University, a nonprofit resource hub and connector for people and organizations working to inform communities across North Carolina, and has consulted and written about journalism as key infrastructure for local democracy and equity. Read Melaine’s full bio here.
Top image: Rooms at the C.A. Dillon Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Butner. North Carolina currently has 10 state-run detention centers and four county-operated facilities. A juvenile detention center is a locked facility, similar to a jail, where minors can be held while waiting for a court hearing or until another placement can be found, such as in a community-based program. Credit: NC Newsline