WINFALL — Thanks in part to a successful hiring campaign, a state-run juvenile detention center that closed more than a decade ago in Winfall remains on track to reopen this spring.
Efforts to hire new juvenile justice officers and other specialized staff have been going well, said Matt Debnam, communications officer for the N.C. Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
“Currently, the division is focusing on hiring direct care staff at Perquimans Juvenile Detention Center,” Debnam said.
The detention center is located on Jessup Street in Winfall and is allotted 25 billets for the position of juvenile justice officer II, or youth services behavioral specialist. As of Tuesday, 16 of those of billets have been filled by new hires, according to Debnam.
“We are actively recruiting for this job class until all positions are filled,” he said. “Candidates hired for these positions are eligible to receive a $3,000 sign-on bonus, and will be included on the Juvenile Justice step pay plan, which guarantees annual salary increases during the first several years of employment based upon experience.”
According to Debnam, the division will begin recruiting personnel to fill administrative, educational, healthcare, food service and supervisory roles in the coming weeks.
The N.C. Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention falls under the purview of the N.C. Department of Public Safety. The division has held at least two daylong employment fairs in Elizabeth City to recruit new workers. The first event, held in late November 2023 at Elizabeth City State University’s K.E. White Graduate Center, attracted 40 jobseekers and resulted in 20 of them undergoing on-the-spot interviews. Several were recommended for hire.
A second hiring event was held in early January.
According to Debnam, the center was closed in November 2012 because of state budget constraints and a shrinking number of juveniles who needed to be held in secure custody.
The state is reopening the facility after changes in state and federal guidelines prompted a rise in the number of juvenile delinquents who need to be housed at secured detention centers, Debnam said in November. Under the revised guidelines, juveniles whose cases are being heard in Superior Court must be secured at a juvenile detention center and not in county jails.
To meet this demand, the division is renovating and reopening the Perquimans facility, as well as a juvenile detention center in Hoffman and another in Reidsville. Combined, those three facilities will have enough beds to house 108 total juveniles and set the division up to meet its projected need for nearly 400 beds for juvenile detention by 2025, Debnam said in November. The Perquimans facility alone will have 24 beds.
At the time of its closing on Nov. 15, 2012, the Perquimans Juvenile Detention Center had a workforce of 23 personnel.
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