JDC is a juvenile detention center located in Sioux Falls for people under the age of 18, who have committed a crime or are awaiting trial in the court system. This medium-security jail has a capacity of 40 delinquents, with some coming and going, and some who stay there permanently. Out of the 40 youth that are placed in the system, over half of them are currently medicated for psychological reasons. 

Due to these issues in mental health, the number of restraints being used on inmates has continually increased, according to the Argus Leader. Restraints are used to physically guard someone from further inflicting harm or violence. This is atypical for a detention center due to the extremity of the need. With the increased holdings comes a decrease in staff. Sioux Falls has continually seen a drop in employment over the past few months, which can help explain the need in finding employees to work at JDC. This has become an issue in the cases of lockdowns that occur frequently. “In scenarios when they have to process police-intake calls, new admissions or an emergency occurs, staff frequently has to ‘put kids down’ into their rooms and go into a temporary lockdown, so they can pull staff from the floor to respond,” JDC’s director Jamie Gravett told the Argus Leader. As a result of these crises, staff are being used in their wrong area of care. With more staff focused on crises, there is less focus on the remaining youth. 

Having a hole in staff numbers not only takes a toll on the workforce environment, but the youth as well. Youth placed in JDC are already limited on their freedoms due to their placement in the detention center. Although this is the point, when conflicts arise, youth are forced to go to their rooms while conflict is being responded to. This has caused several issues to arise between employees and youth. All in all, the issue makes sense. Discipline is one thing, but discipline due to conflict other than your own is another. 

“We joke that we’re HSC North,” said Gravett. HSC North is a psychiatric hospital located in Yankton, SD. It is also the only public psychiatric hospital that South Dakota has. Gravett has been instructed not to send youth with mental health issues to HSC North due to the overflowing need for care. The first response to addressing mental health almost always is the discussion of psychiatric hospitals. These hospitals do attend to the mental health needs of all ages, but youth, especially from JDC, need more than just to be attended to during a crisis. “The intention is to stabilize juvenile youth so they can stay in their community,” said the Argus Leader. Can you see the issue here? There are two sides to the conflict: treating mental health and treating juvenile behaviors. JDC is solely a detention center, not a mental health hospital. Gravett told Argus Leader that with a new addiction-focused wing opening at Avera’s Behavioral Health Hospital, he hopes that youth from JDC can be treated there. Sioux Falls does have several opportunities for those struggling with mental health, but unfortunately it has not been the most successful solution for youth at JDC.

What can the city do to combat these issues that are only going to get worse? Argus Leader reporter Nicole Ki believes that having a qualified mental health professional would help in a more proactive way, instead of just focusing on a crisis when it happens. “We anticipate the services of a full time mental health professional would reduce the number of hands on restraints by staff, increase the proper documentation and initiation of mental health holds, increase in comprehensive case management plans for youth with mental health needs, decrease in the suicide attempts, decrease in the utilization of observation rooms and increase staff and youth morale,” Gravett told the Argus Leader. Mental health, as we know, has not been easy for many youth and adults to grasp their head around. Ending the stigma of the reality of it is the first step in helping our community, not just the youth that are in JDC.