Juvenile Facility Operations

Juvenile Facility Operations operates two types of secure custody centers for youths in North Carolina: juvenile detention centers and youth development centers.

Juvenile detention centers temporarily house youths alleged to have committed a delinquent act or to be a runaway. Youths are generally placed in a juvenile detention center while awaiting a court hearing, or until another placement can be found, either in a community-based program or service or following commitment awaiting placement in a youth development center.

Effective Aug. 1, 2020, juvenile detention centers also house youth under age 18 who are charged in criminal court (adult system) and detained pretrial or who receive certain criminal sentences or certain sanctions as a result of adult probation.

Youth development centers are secure facilities that provide education and treatment services to prepare committed youth to successfully transition to a community setting. This type of commitment is the most restrictive, intensive dispositional option available to the juvenile courts in North Carolina. The structure of the juvenile code limits this disposition to those juveniles who have been adjudicated for violent or serious offenses or who have a lengthy delinquency history.

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Juvenile Nutrition Services provides oversight of the nutritional programming in the Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-operated youth development centers and juvenile detention centers. To ensure the youth in our care receive the proper diet, our facilities participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. This team works collaboratively with facility food service supervisors and their staffs to ensure optimal nutritional outcomes for youth. Youth's nutritional literacy is targeted as an education goal while promoting healthy food consumption at the centers. The Juvenile Nutrition Services features a team of professionals assigned to the Central Office to ensure compliance with all federal and state nutrition standards and menu-planning approaches.

The School Nutrition Services Section of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction conducts a required comprehensive program review of Juvenile Justice's School Nutrition Program every five years. This review measures compliance in areas including meal access, eligibility and reimbursement, benefit issuance, meal counting and claiming, dietary specifications and nutrition standards, meal patterns, food safety, civil rights, local wellness policies, accountability and recordkeeping, financial management, procurement and other areas as described in the federal regulations. This review is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

Links:

Updated Local Wellness Policy for Juvenile Detention Centers, January 2018
Updated Local Wellness Policy for Youth Development Centers, January 2018
Triennial Assessment Report, 2020-21
Technical Assistance Regarding Use of the Nondiscrimination Statement 
 

Contacts:

Director of School Nutrition: Maria Jones
School Nutrition Administrative Officer: Carolyn Cash
                                                             

Juvenile Education Services (JES) provides oversight of the education programming in youth development centers, juvenile detention centers and contracted community-based residential programs, and is charged with fulfilling all state and federal mandates of a traditional school system. Follow this link for additional information regarding JES.

Juvenile Health Services is dedicated to meeting the health and health education needs of the youths in juvenile justice facilities. Professional medical staff screen and assess youth upon admission, develop healthcare plans and provide appropriate interventions and/or follow-up that may include referral for specialty assessment and intervention. Follow this link for additional information regarding juvenile health services.