North Carolina and Mecklenburg County officials are looking to reopen Mecklenburg County’s juvenile detention center, also known as Jail North, as soon as this summer. Before a news conference, leaders held a stakeholder meeting at the Ascend Nonprofit Center in uptown Charlotte Monday afternoon.
Members of The Children's Alliance, Charlotte City Council and juvenile court judges determined that the county needs to make a full push to have an active juvenile detention center again.
Reopening the detention center that closed in 2022 would cost about $17 million in combined state and local funding. But those plans face challenges without a state budget in place.
Many juvenile detention centers across North Carolina are already at capacity, forcing some young offenders from Mecklenburg County to be held several hours away. County juvenile court Judge Elizabeth Trosch said as growth continues in Mecklenburg, the choice of making the investment will be crucial for youth in the future.
"The choice is actually going to be between Mecklenburg County and Duplin County," Trosch said. "So we will either do this in Mecklenburg and make this investment in Mecklenburg and keeping the kids, who will be the center of growth even if the per capita rate of delinquent acts remains steady over the next 5 or 10 years."
"The choice will be, do we invest in that, in growing the capacity in Mecklenburg, or are we going to send our kids to Duplin County over 3.5 hours away?"
Reopening the facility would require more staff, and making shifts to current staff wouldn't work. During the news conference Monday, Sheriff Garry McFadden said staffing the facility with 98 workers would also be difficult.
"We have to understand a couple of things that hurt us is the way that we now depict law enforcement that hurts us," McFadden said. "That hurts us no matter what you think, people would rather go and work somewhere else than working in law enforcement. Then we have to compete against CMPD and all the other townships to hire the 90 people."
McFadden also added that the proposed budget is focused on long-term sustainability.
"We’re not just talking about today how are we going to sustain this? Because once we open the doors and have these kids come in, how can we sustain it for three, four, five years down the road?"
McFadden is running for reelection. He acknowledged there may have to be budget cuts elsewhere to free up funds. The facility previously cost about $15 million a year to operate. McFadden closed the juvenile detention center before in 2022.
