Durham County is spending $30M on a new juvenile detention facility. Some say the money could be spent in better ways.
Several community activist groups want Durham County to pause work on plans to build a $30 million juvenile detention facility, saying not enough community input has been solicited about alternatives to building a new jail.
The planned 36-bed facility would be built on the same Broad Street site where the existing 14-bed Durham County Youth Home sits. Once the new facility opens in 2023, the 40-year-old Youth Home would be demolished.
Durham Beyond Policing, the Advancement Project, the Social Coalition for Social Justice and others argue there's no need for more than doubling the size of the current building, adding that the money could be better spent on counseling, mental health services and other programs that keep teens out of jail.
"Research shows that youth detention is harmful, period. So, why are we continuing to invest in something we know is harmful, when right now we have the energy and will of the community to identify alternatives?" said Tyler Whittenberg, deputy director of the Advancement Project's Opportunity to Learn Program.
The organization plans to launch a petition this week calling on the county to pause any approvals for the new facility.
The new facility has been in the works since at least 2015, and although the Durham County Board of Commissioners has discussed it and approved various contracts for it at open meetings in recent years, Whittenberg said the push has been far under the radar of the community at large.
"We talked to some community members. They had no idea this was happening," he said. "We need to flag the county that we believe you do not have adequate community engagement and participation in this process. And we also believe that, if you did solicit comments from the community, that you would find many people would prefer to spend $30 million on things that are supportive and nurturing to youth and not things that are actually harmful and can be harmful to youth and really stymie their adolescent development."
Brenda Howerton, chairwoman of the county Board of Commissioners, didn't respond to WRAL News' requests for comment.
But in an Oct. 29 letter to the advocacy groups, she said the county not only needs a new juvenile detention facility because the Youth Home has plumbing and other structural problems, the county is "legally obligated" to build a new facility as part of a 2019 lawsuit settlement and to comply with state law.
Howerton also noted the larger facility would provide needed space now that most cases against 16- and 17-year-olds are handled in juvenile court under the state "Raise the Age" law.
"This new legislation created a situation in which larger, modernized youth facilities were necessary to legally house incarcerated juveniles," she wrote. "The new Youth Home facility will use a holistic assessment center approach to support juveniles beyond simple detention to include services for at-risk and/or court-involved juveniles. The programming for the new facility will take a multifaceted approach to address security, mental health and educational needs of juveniles."
Whittenberg said structural deficiencies and program improvements could be addressed without a $30 million building, adding that there's no need for all of the extra space or spending.
"I think it’s a bit disingenuous to base the entire decision on these instances" of juveniles being charged with murder, he said. "There is an ethical, a moral, an economic and a social argument for why we should not detain youth. All of those, we think, are being ignored, along with the desire to engage community members on a large scale."
The activist groups plan to hold a Nov. 18 town hall meeting to make more people aware of the planned facility.
