How juvenile center says it grew stronger after Helene

RALEIGH, N.C. — Inmates were displaced from several state prisons across western North Carolina as a result of the damage caused by Helene. The storm not only affected the region’s adult prisons, but it also impacted its only youth development center.

Many communities across the region were forced to rebuild following the significant devastation caused by Helene last September and for the state’s criminal justice system, it revealed where the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections and the Department of Public Safety needed to improve response efforts to natural disasters.

The Western Area Juvenile and Assessment Center is the only facility that services the Asheville community and 28 other counties.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s website says juvenile crisis and assessment centers offer evidenced-based crisis assessment and mental health residential services for youth ages 10-17. During their stay at-risk youth are provided with recommendations for the most suitable behavioral interventions.

Both boys and girls are housed at the facility and typically stay between 14 and 45 days to receive comprehensive evaluations by both licensed psychologists and clinical case managers. 

The Western Area Juvenile and Assessment Center first opened in October 2016.

Nearly a decade later, when Helene hit the area last year, the facility was forced to shut down without power and water to continue operations.

“Even after our youth were out of here and we could take a deep breath, it hit all of us,” said Jennifer Morgan, Asheville operations manager for Methodist Home for Children said in an interview with Spectrum News 1. “Youth were using the water that we had here, like jugs of water, to be able to flush the toilet.”

Owned by the Methodist Home for Children, the facility partners with NCDPS’s Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The division’s Juvenile Facility Operations section maintains both juvenile detention centers and youth development centers.

The Methodist Home for Children currently provides residential care and services for youth across 16 locations statewide.

“We had two staff that were here with our youth, but other staff when the storm hit, just came here because they knew our kids are here 24/7,” Morgan said.

Youth brought to the facility under secure custody are housed there for as long as a court order is in place. Morgan said Western Area did have one secure custody youth occupying one of its beds at the time of the storm.

“Under normal circumstances, we cannot transport those youth,” Morgan said. “They’re brought here shackled and chained, and they leave in those as well, but because of the circumstances, what was more important was this kid’s safety.”

Morgan said after a few days youth housed in the facility were transferred to the Bridges Juvenile Crisis and Assessment Center in Winston-Salem. Many of the kids had been struggling to get in contact with their parents and soon learned that the devastation had made its way to their homes as well.

Until the youth could be safely transported, staff at Western Area returned to work to continue cooking and taking care of them, transitioning the facility into a safe haven for support and community.

“Everything from cat litter, to baby food, to gas, to food, I mean, you name it, water, paper towels, everything,” Morgan said. “Methodist Home really wrapped around our staff, and while our kids weren’t here, it became a hub for our staff to come in here.”

Staff members impacted by the storm stayed for days until relief came. Morgan said Helene humbled the staff at Western Area Juvenile and Assessment Center, but it challenged them to grow as individuals and as an agency.

“All of our youth that still come here rather assessment crisis or secure custody are benefiting from that because our staff are like family,” Morgan said.