Children at Durham County’s juvenile detention center are receiving poor-quality education and are subject to random strip searches and other violations of state policy, despite gains being made in the number of hours they spend in class, according to a report by Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC).
The report, released on September 24, found that children have been in school for about six hours per day since the start of the school year in August. But the children reported they are often confined to their cells during the remaining hours of the day and that they don’t interact with teachers at the schools they attend outside of detention.
The report was compiled based on five visits DRNC staff made to the Youth Home, from September 2024 through September 2026, and interviews conducted with children detained there as well as staff. DRNC monitors facilities where people with disabilities are held as the state’s federally designated disability advocacy organization…