Holding Children in Solitary Confinement?
Or: The Ongoing, Horrific Saga of Children’s Prisons in the US
Children. Prisons. Abuse. Cages. Solitary Confinement.
It’s hard to hear these words together.
When talking about imprisoning children, folks often switch from saying “children” to saying “minors” or “youth offenders” … we say “Youth Homes” instead of “Children’s Prisons.” We try to soften the truth — that we are incarcerating children as young as eleven in facilities that are every bit as dehumanizing and carceral as adult prisons.
If you’ve been locked up in these centers, or know a child who has, the details here will come as no surprise. In many ways, what I hear from “youth centers” sounds worse than what I hear from “adult prisons.”
I’m deeply grateful for, and unsurprised-yet-horrified by, an investigation that culminated in “Behind Locked Doors – Inside North Carolina’s Juvenile Detention Centers,” a report released in February 2026 by Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC).
It’s worth reading the whole report, which you can do by clicking the link (underlined text above).
Unless otherwise cited, quotations below are from the report.
About the report:
“Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC) is North Carolina’s Protection and Advocacy (P&A) organization… Between July 2024 and August 2025, DRNC visited every juvenile detention center (JDC) in North Carolina at least once; six facilities were visited more than once. During this monitoring period, 14 juvenile detention centers were operational; one has now ceased operation as a result of DRNC’s important work.
“DRNC gave facility leadership advance notice of each visit…. We spoke with any youth who wished to speak with us in the facilities. Between July 2024 and August 2025, DRNC conducted 398 individual interviews with youth…. Our interviews with the youth and DRNC’s observations form the primary sources of data for this report.”
SOME IMPORTANT TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE REPORT:
— with huge thanks to DRNC and also to comrade A who attended and took notes during a public Q and A session about the report:
- The three county-managed jails in NC present unique accountability and management challenges (Durham, Guilford, Brunswick), partly because counties contract with the Division of Juvenile Justice.
- DRNC staff attorneys, ACLU-NC, and multiple juvenile public defenders gave a public panel and Q and A at the Durham County Library, where they talked about their legal strategies so far: Challenging through education law and federal disability law seem to be the most successful (e.g. IEPs not being met, education minimum time not being met).
LISTEN UP, DURHAM:
- The “Durham Youth Home” (on North Broad Street, near Costco) was one of the worst of all 14 facilities.
- Children and teenagers in the Durham Youth Home generally reported being locked in their cells for about 23 hours a day.
I’ll quote the report extensively here:
“Solitary confinement is defined as keeping an incarcerated person locked in their cell for more than 22 hours a day. The harmful psychological and physical impacts of solitary confinement have been well documented. These can range from insomnia, hypertension, and paranoia to PTSD, depression, psychosis, suicidal ideation, and premature death. The risks of solitary confinement are greater for youth. The report of the US Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence found that: ‘Nowhere is the damaging impact of incarceration on vulnerable children more obvious than when it involves solitary confinement’ … Young people and people with mental health disabilities should not be subjected to solitary confinement.”
“[…] Youth in facilities using solitary confinement frequently expressed the mental anguish associated with being locked in their cells for so long. Some youth appeared dazed or teary. Many others stated that excessive cell confinement distressed their mental health. While [two facilities] provided tablets for youth to have in their cells in an attempt to ameliorate the conditions of cell confinement, other JDCs did not even provide tablets in cells.
“At some facilities … solitary confinement was made worse by other practices, such as generally prohibiting youth from speaking to other youth indoors. Youth in facilities using solitary confinement expressed feeling that they were being treated like animals. Regarding cell confinement generally, other youth spoke of cell confinement as having negative impacts on their mental health or of feeling like the cell walls were sometimes closing in on them. An alarming number of youth expressed suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm due to being kept in solitary confinement-like conditions. DRNC obtained youth permission and relayed urgent mental health needs to facility leadership.”
Yes. It’s horrific. These are CHILDREN.
Conditions specific to the “Durham Youth Home” (DYH):
- DYH is a black box; it’s been very difficult to get verified details until now.
- A former therapist who worked at DYH also attested to what they witnessed: staff shackled children as young as eleven for therapy appointments.
- 97% of children in DYH have at least one disability.
- Education is regularly and randomly suspended during arbitrarily designated “lockdowns.”
- And I repeat: children in DYH reported widespread use of solitary confinement; they regularly spend 23 hours per day locked in their cells or “the Hole.”
- “At Durham County Youth Home, youth reported that children could be placed in ‘the Hole ‘as a disciplinary measure. Per DRNC observation, the Hole consists of a bare room with a hole in the floor; it was reported that the hole in the floor was for defecation/urination. [see photo.] The cells youth referred to as the Hole were located in a hallway between two pods. Youth noted that when placed in the Hole, they only sometimes were provided a mattress and the lights stayed on constantly, causing youth to be highly uncomfortable. They only sometimes received a pillow and blanket. Youth were unable to attend school while in the Hole. They also reported they would be placed in the Hole if they refused school for the day.
- Youth reported lengths of stay in the Hole anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks.
- Alarmingly, the Hole was also used for suicide watch purposes.”
- Many youth reported hiding suicidal ideation after being punished for their suicidal ideation by being held in solitary confinement or “the Hole.” Solitary confinement was worse for them than the fact that they are experiencing suicidal ideation.
- Again: we know that solitary confinement causes brain damage.
- We know that solitary confinement can lead to “social death” and an increase in antisocial behaviors.
- Children report being subjected to random strip-searches in addition to scheduled ones.
- At least one child who was interviewed reported direct physical abuse.
- Recreation is severely limited. This includes indoor gym access and outdoor access. Anyone who drives by frequently or lives nearby can confirm we have literally never seen children outdoors here.
- Staff treat children as criminals and say they are “scared of” the children under their “care.”
- Staff regularly prevented children from accessing their attorneys.
- Staff frequently cancel family visitations without notice.
- Staff puts limitations on hygiene products, including toilet paper and menstruation supplies.
- Children are often forced to take meals in their cells, alone.
- Staff force children who express suicidal ideation to wear dehumanizing paper “suicide smocks.”
- Words children used to describe their living situation: “torture,” “dread,” “hell on earth,” “want to breathe fresh air,” “want to see my mom and dad,” “want to see the sun.”
- DRNC interviewers said that “seeing white kids in these facilities was rare.”
- “Staffing” issues were commonly used as justification for abuse.
- Staff say youth “don’t get along” or “are from rival groups [gangs]” as their excuse for forcing children into solitary confinement.
- NC Department of Public Instruction sued in 2025 for not following IEPs.
- Educational provisions run the gamut: sometimes there were in-person DPS teachers. Otherwise education was insufficient or laughable, based around solitary work and tablet use (ed tech: Edgenuity / Imagine Learning, LLC).
So. What can we do?
- Everyone at the Q and A was of the mind that we don’t need child prisons, period! All present were coming from an approach to do what we can while a detention center is in operation: Need for “person-centered treatment,” need for stricter criteria and accountability for staff, need for transition plans for youth.
- It seems like there may be plans to overhaul at the Durham Youth Home based on these reports. We need to stay tuned and make sure this isn’t just talk or PR.
- We need clarity around who exactly can be held accountable. This is an ongoing challenge.
- Reports of violations are made to Department of Social Services and well, yeah, sorry to say that we know justice won’t come through “Child Protective Services.”
- We must fight state laws that further criminalize children (e.g. it is legal in NC for law enforcement officers to post children’s mugshots online)!
- A lot of money goes into contracts for building brand-new “youth centers” or for renovations. How can we hold local companies and individuals accountable for their complicity in building cages for children?
- Raise awareness. Share the DRNC report widely.
- Discuss these conditions with your people!
- Reach out to families whose children are caged in these prisons. Don’t leave them to feel isolated, ignored, or forgotten about.
- Tell your county and state representatives that this is cruel and untenable. These conditions should be on their consciences all the time.
Whew. I know this is horrifying. I know it’s a lot to hold, and this may be news to a lot of you.
Take the time you need to process this, while remembering that even while we process, our children, our neighbors’ children, our community’s children, are being strip-searched, are missing their education, are held in isolation, cannot see their families or attorneys, are not seeing the sky or breathing fresh air, and/or spending 23 hours a day caged in solitary confinement without social interaction, a mattress, or even a toilet.
And this is all being done right here in the US, in our names, with our money, under the pretense of keeping us “safe.”
And so we must ask ourselves:
What kind of world do we want to live in?
How does keeping children in solitary confinement fit into our vision of collective care and belonging?
What are we prepared to do instead?
Signing off for now — with a grieving heart,
and big love and gratitude for each of you,
XOXO
Yes it was hard to read. The pictures looked photo ready so not a true setting. Thank you for writing and sharing.
Here in CT we have Full Citizens Coalition and End Solitary CT fighting to get the legislature to ban solitary confinement for youth and push for more diversion programs. At least the governor seems to want to act on Solitary. I was in Fed prison and the amount of guyes who went from juvenile to the feds based on just frigging turning 18 is astonishing.