Center director Logan separates the “child” from the behavior

With more than 20 years serving the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center, Doug Logan has seen countless detainees filter in and out of his facility.

Center director Logan, who interacts daily with dozens of detainees, notes that separating behavior and character is the key to understanding and helping his students.

“You have to let the child know the difference between being a bad person and a person with bad behavior.” Logan said.

The Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center is a holding facility for youth detainees awaiting court proceedings. The 25,000 square foot facility sits on 10 acres of land in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The center also focuses on the rehabilitation of adolescents who have broken the juvenile code of North Carolina. The average stay for a detainee is 14 to 28 days, and bound over juveniles have an average stay of one to three years.

Typically, two types of juveniles are admitted to the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center via court order. The first is an undisciplined juvenile who is at least 8 years old, but younger than 18.

These juveniles are regularly disobedient to and beyond the control of their parents, have been found in places that are deemed unlawful, or have run away from home for longer than a day.

The second type of juvenile housed at the center, is a delinquent juvenile. This is a juvenile between the ages of 8 and 16 who has committed a crime under state or local laws.

“They don’t have bond and bail like adults,” Logan said, “so they have holding centers.”

Total occupancy for the center is 44 juveniles with a ratio of one staff member to eight juveniles. On average, 11,000 to 12,000 juveniles annually come through the Guilford detention center – some of whom are repeat offenders – while they await trial, sentencing or short jail terms. But jail, Logan said, is not always the answer and may help contribute to recidivism.

GUILFORD COUNTY JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER

25,000-square feet center on 10 acres of land in Greensboro, North Carolina
44 beds -- with a staff ratio or one staffer per eight juveniles
Programs
- Gardening
- Health and Wellness Education Classes
- Group Counseling Sessions
- Nutrition Class
- Mind, Body, and Soul Physical Fitness Classes
- Foundation Fitness Classes

“Not every child needs to be detained,” Logan said. “If you have been detained once before the age of 16, there is a 60 percent chance you will be detained at least one more time.”

An adolescent convicted of a serious crime can receive a jail sentence of 1 year to life. If adolescents are tried as adults, the average sentence for high level crime is 15 to 30 years. Juvenile offenders convicted of lesser crimes often enter youth development centers (YDCs), and serve a range of sentences from 16 months up until the age of 21.

Logan’s goal is to keep the detainees in his charge from returning to jail or moving up to adult prisons once they’ve been released.

Logan thinks that more training and nurturing at an early age might reduce the numbers of young people coming through his center’s doors.

He finds mentoring programs in high schools to be more effective than zero-tolerance programs that impose strict consequences for missteps.

“Rehabilitation starts day one,” Logan said. “We try to treat these children how we would want our own children to be treated. …If they act out, we discipline, but we discipline in a positive and productive manner.”

Logan credits Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras with working to actively lower the system’s external suspension rate and assign pupils in-school suspensions instead.

Contreras, who has experience in the youth guidance and education system, has worked to address problems before they reach the youth development center’s doorstep.

Contreras was not available for comment for this series of stories, but she comes from a line of administrators in the Guilford County schools who have tried to change the trajectory of troubled students.

Logan has tried to reverse the conditioning of punishment his detainees have experienced in their early youth, by implementing many nurturing and healthy practices in his rehabilitation programs.

The Guilford juvenile center’s staff makes it their mission to check on juveniles every 15 minutes; they hold counseling sessions every 30 minutes.

Juveniles can cash in points for good behavior every Wednesday and Saturday, which reinforces the idea of rewarding behavior.

The Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) officers are trained to hold interventions with detainees in order to help decrease youth participation in gangs or youth violence, Logan said.

The Guilford detention center also partners with the Greensboro Symphony and “The Word Project” poetry competition.

The detention center also has a plethora of wellness programs meant to teach detainees to lead a healthy and conscious lifestyle. These wellness programs include gardening, health and wellness education, nutrition, foundation fitness, and mindy, body and soul fitness classes.

Logan and his team do not focus on the behavior of their detainees; they instead focus on what caused the behavior. If a child is running away from home, committing crimes, and participating in gang life, Logan said authorities need to focus on why this child is acting out and where they learned this behavior.

Recognizing the reasoning behind bad behavior is more proactive than punishing the bad behavior. With all of the self-awareness techniques and outreach programs his team implements, Logan believes the center is creating a smoother transition for the juvenile to re-enter regular school.

“We are a less tolerant world to those that aren't making good choices,” Logan said.

With covid-19, Logan and the Guilford Juvenile Detention Center are taking the proper precautions to ensure the safety of detainees, staff and visitors.

The center is cleansing and disinfecting bathrooms twice a day and spraying the entire facility twice a week. High traffic areas are sprayed on a regular basis. The spraying is done electronically to reduce any possible risk of contamination.

Detainees and their visitors are staying up to code on safety procedures, which include good hygiene and temperature checks.

Detainees who suffer from coronavirus symptoms will still be held in their cells, but will be placed on watch by the county health director until confirmed positive. Anyone who tests positive will be placed under medical accommodation or will be hospitalized if necessary.

General information about the Guildford County Juvenile Detention Center