{"id":655611,"date":"2026-10-24T09:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655611\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T09:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T09:18:49","slug":"new-unit-aims-to-fill-gaps-in-mental-health-care-for-nc-youth-in-juvenile-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655611\/","title":{"rendered":"New unit aims to fill gaps in mental health care for NC youth in juvenile detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Rachel Crumpler, North Carolina Health News
October 22, 2026<\/p>\n

By Rachel Crumpler\u00a0<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways:<\/p>\n

North Carolina has launched its first specialized mental health unit for youth in juvenile justice, with 10 beds for intensive treatment.
\nYoung people awaiting mental health placements can often spend months in detention, usually because other facilities reject them.
\nThe two-year pilot will test whether specialized treatment can reduce crises and help youth access appropriate care.<\/p>\n

Arkevious Armstrong, 45, returned to C.A. Dillon Juvenile Detention Center in Butner on Oct. 12. He had last walked out of the facility 30 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Armstrong spent four years of his childhood there, from age 13 to 17. This time, though, he came to celebrate the opening of a new behavioral health unit at the facility. The PIVOT unit is designed to provide more timely and intensive mental health care to young people in North Carolina\u2019s juvenile justice system.<\/p>\n

Bright blue walls and motivational phrases cover the newly renovated 10-bed unit; the goal is to create a more therapeutic environment than a typical detention facility.<\/p>\n

\"AInside the PIVOT unit at C.A. Dillon Juvenile Detention Center in Butner, which will provide intensive mental health treatment to justice-involved youth with the most acute needs.<\/p>\n

\"AAttendees at PIVOT’s grand opening on Oct. 12, 2026, tour the new 10-bed unit, which will serve young people referred from any North Carolina juvenile detention center or youth development center. <\/p>\n

\"cinderMotivational phrases cover the walls of the new specialized mental health unit at C.A. Dillon Juvenile Detention Center in Butner. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf a place like this was in place when I was there, I would have probably had a different outcome upon my release,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After his release at 17, Armstrong said he accumulated more than a dozen mugshots and eventually served time in state and federal prisons. He later turned his life around and became a public speaker, author and nonprofit founder. A greater focus on mental health when he was in custody, he said, could have helped him find that path sooner.<\/p>\n

\"AArkevious Armstrong, who entered the justice system as a juvenile, served as the keynote speaker at PIVOT’s grand opening event on Oct. 12, 2026. He displayed photos of his past mugshots to convey the impact that investments into better support for the juvenile justice population can have. “Somewhere on your caseload is the next success story. Your investment in a young person is never wasted,” the posters read.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s encouraged by seeing more resources devoted to mental health care and hopes the unit will help more young people get the support they need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is definitely a step in the right direction,\u201d said Armstrong, who served as keynote speaker at the unit\u2019s ribbon-cutting event. \u201cI didn\u2019t really get it together, or really get it right, until I was over 25 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unit, funded by $3.5 million from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services for a two-year pilot, is the first of its kind in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain kids who need both a high degree of safety, security and structure, and a high degree of treatment,\u201d said Matt Simon, chief operations officer at New Hope Treatment Centers<\/a>, which is partnering with the state juvenile justice system to provide PIVOT\u2019s clinical care. \u201cThese youth have been getting mostly just one and not the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hoping is this proves that if we can find ways to give these kids both, I think we\u2019ll get better outcomes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tremendous need, limited treatment options<\/p>\n

Youth in North Carolina\u2019s juvenile justice system have significant mental health needs<\/a>, and some require a level of care the system just hasn\u2019t had capacity to provide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A December 2025 point-in-time survey by the state Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention<\/a> found that 99.4 percent of young people in North Carolina\u2019s youth development centers<\/a> had at least one mental health diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Youth development centers are the system\u2019s most restrictive setting, similar to adult prisons. Young people adjudicated for offenses committed before they turn 18 can be sent there, where they spend an average of 14 months.<\/p>\n

On average, youth in those facilities had 4.7 distinct mental health or substance use disorder diagnoses. Some had as many as 12 diagnosable problems, the survey found.<\/p>\n

\"AThe chart presents findings from a representative point-in-time survey of young people confined in youth development centers on Dec. 31, 2025, showing the prevalence of complex behavioral health needs. <\/p>\n

In juvenile detention centers, which function more like adult jails, more than half of young people have been assessed as having mental health needs, according to the division.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Young people sent to these facilities typically stay for shorter periods as they await court proceedings or placement in community-based programs, staying, on average, 40 days.<\/p>\n

Of the 2,491 youth admitted to juvenile detention centers from November 2024 through October 2025, 210 \u2014 or 8.4 percent \u2014 were placed on suicide watch after being assessed by a licensed mental health clinician.<\/p>\n

Deputy Secretary William Lassiter, who has overseen the state\u2019s juvenile justice system since 2014, said he\u2019s seen the mental health needs among youth in the state\u2019s 12 juvenile detention centers<\/a> and five youth development centers<\/a> grow more complex and more intense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ADeputy Secretary William Lassiter, who leads the state’s juvenile justice system, speaks at PIVOT’s grand opening event on Oct. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

All told, those facilities housed 576 young people as of Oct. 16, according to data provided to NC Health News.<\/p>\n

As the state has reduced the number of young people sent to youth development centers over the past decade, the ones landing there now increasingly have more intensive needs, he said. The average number of diagnoses per young person has increased, according to division data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times when they end up in a [youth development center], it\u2019s because all the other systems have failed \u2014 the school system, DSS, the mental health system \u2014 and hasn\u2019t been able to either properly identify what is going on with this kid, or it has not been able to be successful with that child,\u201d Lassiter told NC Health News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staff regularly conduct health assessments that recommend a higher level of mental health care, Lassiter said, but placement options are scarce. Hospitals and residential psychiatric facilities often reject justice-involved youth because of the complexity of their needs and behavioral histories, which may include aggression, sexualized behavior, gang involvement or running away, he explained.<\/p>\n

On any given day, Lassiter said, about 30 percent of North Carolina\u2019s juvenile detention population is in custody awaiting a different placement. Often that\u2019s to a mental health treatment setting, but involvement in the justice system is often a barrier to getting the care they need.<\/p>\n

In a sample of 425 detention admissions from 2021 through 2025, youth awaiting behavioral health placement spent nearly three times longer in detention as the average stay of 25 days, according to division data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For young people recommended for placement in a psychiatric residential treatment facility, fewer than half received that level of care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the five-year sample, just six in 10 kids got the level of care that had been recommended for them, the division found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Filling a service gap<\/p>\n

The new 10-bed enhanced behavioral health unit will serve youth with the most acute needs who are referred from any North Carolina juvenile detention center or youth development center. That includes young people who have been repeatedly placed on suicide watch, who are experiencing psychosis or exhibiting heightened aggression.<\/p>\n

Lassiter said the division partnered with New Hope Treatment Centers<\/a>, which operates a 150-bed psychiatric residential treatment facility for adolescents in Rock Hill, South Carolina. That facility is one of the few in the Southeast that often accepts justice-involved youth who have been rejected elsewhere. The partnership also brings expertise in providing more intensive services, along with highly trained staff.<\/p>\n

The unit will start admitting youth in November. New Hope Treatment Centers\u2019 mental health staff and detention facility staff will jointly determine which youth are best suited for treatment there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA therapist room inside the new PIVOT mental health unit at C.A. Dillon Juvenile Detention Center in Butner. <\/p>\n

Lassiter said the unit will fill a critical service gap. On any given week, he said, two or three youth are transported to the hospital for a mental health crisis that exceeds what the personnel in detention facilities can manage. The hospital trips are resource-intensive, requiring two staff members to accompany each youth to ensure their safety and security \u2014 and the youth rarely leave the hospital with a diagnosis or treatment plan that helps them get better.<\/p>\n

From November 2024 through October 2025, just four youth were admitted for inpatient psychiatric care, even as 210 youth were placed on suicide watch during that time. In the community, youth experiencing similar crises would end up at a crisis facility, but psychiatric providers rarely admit justice-involved youth who exhibit aggressive behavior for involuntary commitment, according to information provided by juvenile division spokesperson Matthew Debnam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a facility where kids can go to that won\u2019t be rejected,\u201d Lassiter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PIVOT is designed to provide short-term crisis intervention and stabilization services, helping youth move on to their next appropriate placement and continue their rehabilitation. The goal is for youth to stay for about 14 to 30 days, though the timeline is flexible.<\/p>\n

Simon from New Hope Treatment Centers said he hopes the unit can be a way to better serve youth and improve outcomes.<\/p>\n

\"AMatt Simon, chief operations officer at New Hope Treatment Centers, speaks at PIVOT’s grand opening event on Oct. 12, 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times where there are kids who are actually court ordered and recommended for psychiatric treatment, but because no provider will say yes to them, they basically get stuck in the juvenile justice system [in detention],\u201d Simon said. \u201cThat\u2019s not what the system is meant to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also said that\u2019s not a good reflection on North Carolina\u2019s mental health system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hoping we could do with a young person like that is spend some time in our unit and get our team to really tangibly improve their behavior, improve their functioning, get them on the right medications, get them in the right therapies, but also advocate for them and show that this is a kid who can be served outside of this locked setting,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n

For a youth awaiting a behavioral health placement, PIVOT may provide a diagnosis and treatment plan that makes another facility more willing to accept them. Some youth may become stable enough to enter a community placement with support at home. Others may return to detention after treatment in the unit once their mental health needs are better managed, allowing them to participate in programming that could accelerate their release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they languish too long in a justice setting that they really shouldn\u2019t be in, they\u2019re going to regress \u2014 and they\u2019re going to end up just being as bad as people assumed they were going to be,\u201d Simon said. \u201cBut they weren\u2019t going to be that way if we could have intervened earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testing a new approach<\/p>\n

PIVOT will start with 10 beds, though Lassiter acknowledged that the need among the juvenile justice population far exceeds that capacity. The unit has space for 20 beds, but the two-year pilot funding only covers the cost of operating half.<\/p>\n

Lassiter is putting together a funding proposal for the legislature to open all 20 beds and plans to seek more money during the long General Assembly session, which begins in early 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TwoDeputy Secretary William Lassiter (left) stands inside the juvenile justice system’s newly renovated mental health unit. “We really thought that there’s got to be a better way to serve these young people,” Lassiter told NC Health News about the launch of the unit.<\/p>\n

The division will closely track the unit\u2019s outcomes, including, among other things:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether it reduces the number of youth placed on suicide watch at their home facilities\u00a0
\nReduces the need for off-site hospitalizations\u00a0
\nReduces the number of assaults on staff\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials will also look at whether PIVOT helps youth get diagnoses and treatment plans they previously lacked, and reduces wait times for behavioral health placements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lassiter also thinks there will be benefits beyond the youth admitted to PIVOT. Moving some of the young people with the most acute needs to the specialized behavioral health unit could free up staff time and resources at other facilities, allowing staff to provide more programming and out-of-cell time for other youth.<\/p>\n

If the model is successful, Lassiter hopes the state will set up behavioral health units at other detention facilities to better address the substantial mental health needs among its juvenile justice population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to start small, make sure we get it right, and then hopefully expand from there,\u201d Lassiter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/www.northcarolinahealthnews.org\/2026\/10\/22\/juvenile-justice-pivot-mental-health-unit\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/www.northcarolinahealthnews.org”>North Carolina Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.northcarolinahealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cropped-favicon02.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n

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