North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Facilities

The department operates four youth development centers (YDCs) and nine youth detention centers. The YDCs are state-oriented correctional facilities that provide educational and vocational courses to youth. A youth who is of age 10 or older may be committed to a YDC for a minimum of a six-month stay. The average stay of a youth in YDC is about 375 days (1 year and 10 days). The 1998 Juvenile Justice Reform Act states that only serious offenders, violent offenders, and chronic offenders may be ordered to attend YDCs. The public at times has confused the YDCs with the youth correctional facilities operated by the North Carolina Department of Correction. The detention centers are regional correctional facilities that temporarily house juveniles before they receive final placement or before they go to trial. The detention centers provide services to all counties except Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, and Mecklenburg, which operate their own regional youth detention centers.

YDC

The juvenile section has the following juvenile long-term commitment facilities, called "youth development centers":

Girls were previously housed at the Samarkand Youth Development Center (YDC) near Eagle Springs. The 60 acres (24 ha) complex first opened in 1918 and did not have a fence.

Swannanoa Valley Youth Development Center in Swannanoa held delinquent boys, including those without sufficient English fluency. It opened in 1961.

Youth detention centers

The youth detention centers are:

The county-operated centers are the Durham County Youth Home, the Forsyth County Youth Services Center, and the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center.