A federal judge will allow a lawsuit challenging solitary confinement in North Carolina juvenile detention centers to cover anyone housed at the Cabarrus Detention Center. At the same time, the judge has rejected a request to extend the suit to all juvenile detainees in state facilities across North Carolina.
John Doe plaintiffs from 15 to 17 years old filed suit against the North Carolina Department of Public Safety in January 2024. They sought class-action status to cover all juveniles housed in DPS detention centers.
“Plaintiffs John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 were, at the time the complaint was filed, juveniles in state custody at the Cabarrus Juvenile Detention Center awaiting adjudication of charges against them,” US District Judge Catherine Eagles wrote in an order Wednesday. “They allege that the state keeps them and other juveniles in solitary confinement for many hours a day and does not provide basic educational services. They challenge the constitutionality of these practices and seek declaratory judgment and injunctive relief on behalf of a class of all juveniles at all state juvenile detention centers or, in the alternative, juveniles at the Cabarrus Detention Center.”
“In its discretion, the Court will deny the motion for certification of a statewide class, given the commonality, typicality, and manageability problems that class would present,” Eagles added. “But the Court will certify a class of juvenile pretrial detainees held at the Cabarrus Juvenile Detention Center. As to this class, the plaintiffs have shown that a class action is an appropriate way to resolve the constitutional claims they raise.”
The class includes “[a]ll pre-adjudication juveniles who are currently, or in the future will be, detained in the Cabarrus Juvenile Detention Center,” Eagles explained.
The suit alleged “devastating and long-term effects” of keeping juveniles locked up by themselves.
“Over a decade ago, the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence addressed the harmful effects of solitary confinement of children,” according to the complaint. “This practice was so prevalent and damaging that after an investigation by the United States Justice Department, President Obama banned the use of solitary confinement on juveniles in federal prisons in 2016.”
“Recognizing the harmful effects solitary confinement have on juveniles, over seven years ago, in June 2016, Defendant North Carolina Department of Public Safety (“NCDPS”) announced the end to solitary confinement for inmates in adult correctional facilities who were under 18 years of age,” the lawsuit added.
“Despite the overwhelming consensus that solitary confinement has devastating and long-term effects on juveniles, including depression, anxiety, suicide, psychosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and despite the abandonment of solitary confinement for juveniles throughout the country, NCDPS has embraced a policy, custom, and practice of solitary confinement of children as young as ten years old, who have not had their cases adjudicated yet, at juvenile detention centers across the state of North Carolina, including the Cabarrus Regional Juvenile Detention Center (the “Cabarrus Juvenile Jail”), for nearly 24 hours a day,” the complaint continued.
The suit points to negative impacts on juveniles’ education, behavior, and mental state.
“Solitary confinement has been proven dangerous for all ages, but is especially harmful for juveniles due to their developmental vulnerabilities,” according to the complaint. “It is well established that isolating children and thereby preventing children from having meaningful contact with others increases their risk of suicide and self-harm. For those children that have a mental health challenge or disability, the risk of harm can be even greater. 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. Defendants have chosen this route in the face of public scrutiny and despite open discussions of the current conditions.”
The suit contends that solitary confinement violates the juveniles’ Eighth and 14th Amendment rights.
“Defendants must be immediately restrained from placing Plaintiffs and the Class in solitary confinement as punishment, discipline, or because there is inadequate staffing, and from placing Plaintiffs in solitary confinement for any reason other than a rare and temporary response to prevent imminent and serious physical harm to persons due to a juvenile’s behavior,” according to the suit.
The John Doe plaintiffs seek an injunction, along with a court-appointed “neutral monitor” to ensure DPS compliance with the court’s orders.
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