WINFALL — Compared to working with adult inmates, a career as a juvenile corrections officer can be challenging but also more rewarding, says William Lassiter, deputy secretary of the N.C. Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
“I’d say there are more challenges because kids are more impulsive,” said Lassiter. “There also are more benefits, because a kid is changeable, where a lot of the adults that you get in the adult system, they’re kind of stuck in that lifestyle.
“Young people, a lot of times, have made one or two mistakes and this is the opportunity to really put them back on track,” Lassiter said. “It can be extremely rewarding. The challenges are outweighed by some of those rewards that you can get by actually seeing a kid turn their life around.”
Lassiter was among the state and local elected leaders and area county sheriffs attending the May 16th open house at the soon-to-reopen Perquimans Juvenile Detention Center in Winfall.
Since November, the Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has held at least two local career fairs hoping to hire enough staff to operate the facility. Lassiter said the division has hired enough officers to partially open the center in about three weeks.
“We’ve got about a third of the staff that we need to fully open but we’ve got enough that we think we can open half of the facility in about two to three weeks,” he said. “We’re still looking for people. If people are interested, they can go on the state website. We’re offering a sign-on bonus right now of $3,000.”
The detention center originally opened in 1996 but it was closed in 2012 because of state budget constraints and a shrinking number of juveniles who needed to be held in secure custody.
The state reopened the Winfall facility after changes to state and federal guidelines prompted a rise in the number of juvenile delinquents who need to be housed at secured detention centers, division spokesman Matt Debnam has said. 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.
The facility will house youth from across the region — from Perquimans County to Currituck County and down to Dare County and back west to Martin County. The center could not have reopened at a better time, according to Lassiter.
“We need additional beds for juveniles across the state right now,” he said. “We’re over capacity in juvenile detention by about 50 kids” statewide.
In addition to renovating and reopening the Winfall facility, the state is also building new juvenile detention centers in Hoffman and Reidsville. Those facilities, combined with the one reopening in Winfall, will have enough beds to house 108 juveniles and set the division up to meet its projected need for nearly 400 beds for juvenile detention by 2025, Debnam said in a previous interview.
The Perquimans facility alone will have 24 beds.
“Having this facility along with two other ones that we’re building across the state right now is going to make a huge difference in making sure that we can have the capacity that we need to house juveniles,” Lassiter said.
The reopening of the Winfall center will be a relief for both regional law enforcement officers and juveniles because the next closest state-run youth detention center is in Pitt County.
Currently, each time a youth offender had an appearance in local courts, law enforcement officers had to transport them from Pitt County and then back to the facility. It’s also important to house youth offenders closer to home so their parents can be involved, Lassiter said.
According to Lassiter, juveniles housed in Winfall can expect an average stay of about 29 days. During their confinement they will continue their education under the instruction of two teachers employed by the division, Lassiter said.
The detention center is formed of two separate cell blocks, each with cells and its own dayroom and shower facilities. The blocks are divided by a communications and security office. The offenders are housed one per cell and are not allowed to interact with their counterparts in the opposite wing. Each cell has a bed and toilet.
The Perquimans Juvenile 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.
To learn more about how to become a juvenile justice officer at the Winfall detention center, visit the state website nc.gov/working/finding-job. At the home page, click on “search state job opportunities” and next do a search for “Perquimans County.”
The N.C. Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention falls under the purview of the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
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