Incarcerated North Carolina children put in solitary confinement for weeks, parents say

RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) — Parents sued the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Monday, saying that their children are being kept in solitary confinement for nearly 24 hours a day and denied their constitutional right to an education. 

In a class action filed in the Middle District of North Carolina, three incarcerated children and their parents, all identified in the suit as John Does, say that the solitary confinement denies the children equal protection and is cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment.  

The plaintiffs name multiple juvenile detention centers in North Carolina where they say the centers detain children between the ages of 10 and 17. Most of the children have not been found delinquent, and are still awaiting hearings and placements. 

“Subjecting kids — who have not had their cases adjudicated — to 23-24 hours of solitary confinement for weeks at a time is grossly injurious and unconstitutional,” said Rob Lindholm, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. “The lawsuit seeks to take immediate action to end this practice.” 

At Cabarrus Juvenile Jail, the plaintiffs say, children are confined in their cells for 23 hours a day “for weeks or even months” and only let out to shower, to fill their water bottle, for an hour of school or to clean. Their cells are no larger than 8 by 10 feet, and each child has their own cell, with only a toilet, sink and window. 

John Doe 2 — a 16-year-old incarcerated at Cabarrus Juvenile Jail legally represented in the suit by his mother — hasn’t been allowed outside of his cell for more than an hour in a single day since November 2023, when his incarceration began, plaintiffs say. On Christmas day, he was allowed to take a 10-minute shower and have a 10-minute call with his mother. The other 23 hours and 40 minutes, he was confined to his cell. 

The plaintiffs also claim that at the Dillon Regional Juvenile Detention Center, children are only allowed out of their cells for 20 minutes a day to shower. They don’t have any kind of regular schooling, except for crossword puzzles and word searches that they are given a few times a week. They are not allowed to leave their cell for water and aren’t allowed to go outside except to be transported to court hearings, according to the families.

At both centers, it is common for children to be locked in their cells for months at a time. Children who are acting out are punished by staff turning off the water in their cells so they can’t use the toilet or flush the sink, and by covering the small window on the door of their cell. 

Former President Barack Obama prohibited the use of solitary confinement on minors in federal prison in 2016, and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety publicly announced that they too ended the practice the same year. 

“Despite the known dangers to the children in their care and their admission of the harm that solitary confinement causes children, defendants run the juvenile jails in North Carolina with inadequate staffing that predictably results in children being locked in their cells nearly 24 hours a day,” said the plaintiffs. “Defendants have chosen this route in the face of public scrutiny and despite open discussions of the current conditions.”

The plaintiffs and the local press say that the confinement is related to severe understaffing at the centers, which was at an all-time high during the pandemic. Several of the incarcerated children also say they have been told they are not allowed out because of staffing shortages.  

“The policy, custom, and practice of locking children in their cells nearly 24 hours a day experienced by children in juvenile jails is a direct result of a policy and practice of understaffing the juvenile detention centers that has been established by defendant NCDPS,” the plaintiffs wrote in the suit.

The risk of harm is great, say the plaintiffs, as solitary confinement drastically increases the risk of suicide, and can lead to long-term trust issues and trauma from the isolation.

“The Council For Children’s Rights has consistently raised these unconstitutional practices with the defendants in this lawsuit throughout the past year,” said Michelle Duprey, an attorney for the plaintiffs and the director of children’s defense at the Council for Children’s Rights. “Studies have documented the devastating and long-lasting effects of solitary confinement on children.” 

The children are also not being provided with any kind of schooling, which North Carolina’s educational policy requires the centers to provide. Because the children remain in their cells all day, classroom education isn’t supplied. In the lawsuit, plaintiffs say that the children are left without regular instruction for the entire time they are in solitary confinement, and can go weeks without any schoolwork or lessons.  

At Cabarrus Juvenile Jail, where John Doe 2 is held, school attendance has continued to depreciate since January 2023, when a handful of children attended school for 12 days. In July, children only attended 3 days of school the entire month, and instruction only lasted 30 minutes to an hour. Classes were normally video lessons on a laptop. None of the incarcerated minor plaintiffs being held at Cabarrus Juvenile Jail have received any kind of education since they were admitted. 

On their website, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction said that children are provided with “basic educational services that mirror the course of study adopted by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.” Children are required to receive 1,000 hours of instruction a year, which in increments of half an hour, would be impossible to fulfill in a given year. 

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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