By Lucille Hancock


(R-CNS) – Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center is the last juvenile correctional center in Virginia, standing as a relic of the pervasive fear of juvenile offenders.

An increase in violent incidents over the last two months at BAJCC has brought attention to the lack of resources supplied by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice.

The facility holds 272 beds and houses mostly males between 11 and 20 years old. The mission of the BAJCC is to, “protect the public by preparing court-involved and committed youth to be successful citizens,” according to its website.

Within the last two months, there have been three instances of inmates inciting violence.

On the afternoon of Feb. 9, 11 residents of a male housing unit became non compliant, necessitating the staff to call for additional assistance, BAJCC stated in a press release.

A few weeks later, a resident started a small fire in his cell by using a battery and its connecting wires from headphones. A similar event occurred on March 6, according to the facility.

Headphones are used as an enrichment tool for juveniles, and removing them wouldn’t be in their best interest, according to the press release.

Julie McConnell, the director of the Children’s Defense Clinic (CDC), acts as legal defense for many inmates at BAJCC. The CDC is a program that allows third-year law students to advocate for indigent juveniles in criminal court. She is also a professor of law at the University of  Richmond.

McConnell explained that the root of the problem with Virginia’s treatment of juveniles began in the 1990s when the concept of the superpredator worked its way into state legislation and government budgeting.

John DiIulio, a professor at Princeton University who coined the term superpredator in the 1990s, insisted that the rise in juvenile offenses would continue to increase if left unaddressed. His hypothesis, which was later disproved, caused widespread panic and worsened the treatment of young people in the court systems and the building of facilities like BAJCC.

As the shortcomings of the superpredator myth became clear, the 2008 recession took a blow to government spending in every state. Virginia began closing the juvenile prisons that the state had overbuilt to warehouse these allegedly heathenistic and pervasive juveniles, McConnell said.

Rather than reinvesting the prison funds into communities to serve juvenile offenders, McConnell said that Virginia’s budgets were simply directed back into the general fund. For children in the state system to get the help and support they need, BAJCC is often the solution.

“We’re not fully committed to providing those services on the front end. We wait until it gets bad enough that we can just incarcerate them. I see it over and over again, families come to the court begging for services and have to wait up to 90 days,” McConnell said. “I represent kids in juvenile court every day and have been doing it for 25 years, and I find more often than not that we cannot provide the services that kids need.”

According to a presentation given Sept. 19, 2023 by the director of the BAJCC, Amy Floriano, “The majority (93%) of youth appeared to have at least one symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, oppositional defiance disorder, or substance use disorder.”

Melodie Martin, the public information officer for the VDJJ, acknowledged in an email the issues of understaffing at BAJCC.

The problems with staff at the center go beyond a lack of personnel.

In a press release from March 28, the BAJCC stated that as a result of their investigation, Cedric A. Thomas, 60, wasn arrested on charges of sexual assault of a female prisoner. The purported assault took place in May 2024, when Thomas was employed to supervise and maintain the security of the juveniles incarcerated at BAJCC. The DJJ said that assault was not reported to Chesterfield Police until June 28, after the DJJ investigation had identified the perpetrator. A grand jury issued indictments 10 months later. The DJJ maintains that the incident was not reported to them until weeks later, but did not provide a date.

The female prisoner has since been relocated and her identity has not been shared. Police said that “based on the investigation, detectives believe Thomas may have additional victims in the community.”

Despite lawmaker’s call for an independent investigation into the BAJCC, Martin has refused to comment on the recent issues at the center. Press releases have been shared with the public, but news sources are generally being denied any further information.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act states that “The agency shall require all staff to report immediately and according to agency policy any knowledge, suspicion, or information regarding an incident of sexual abuse or sexual harassment that occurred in a facility.”

PREA is a set of national, zero tolerance guidelines that all prisons must abide by. These standards require any abuses of inmates under 18 or any adult considered vulnerable to be mandated to report the allegation to designated state or local services. In the case of sexual assault, there are more specific requirements set forth regarding evidence collection and trained officials. Given the lack of complete timeline provided by BAJCC, a timely response to the allegation may not have been possible.

In the letter to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Commission on Youth called for a closer look “into the operations, staffing, programming, mental health services, and other practices at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center to assist the Department of Juvenile Justice in making the changes necessary.”

McConnell placed a heavy emphasis on the necessity of positive social environments within interaction centers for juveniles, which would allow them to better reenter the community. For many, the mental health services and educational resources offered at BAJCC place them on a successful path; for some, recidivism becomes more likely. Many incarcerated at BAJCC face a lack of positive social interaction, said McConnell.

To end up incarcerated at a facility like BAJCC, a juvenile must be convicted of four misdemeanors or one felony. In McConnell’s eyes, this is too little. Offenders who have been caught shoplifting twice and trespassing twice, for example, could be incarcerated in BAJCC with those convicted of murder.

“Sometimes people take the opportunity to learn how to be a different kind of criminal when they’re around really serious criminals,” McConnell said. “They might become affiliated with a gang for protection.”

BAJCC has instituted the G.R.E.A.T. program to help end gang violence and combat the existing issues in the facility.  According to their 2023 transformation plan update, “The 15-week G.R.E.A.T. curriculum includes developing positive relationships with law enforcement and instilling life skills, goal setting, empathy and pride for the community, violence intervention and conflict-resolution techniques, decision making and problem solving.”

Programs like G.R.E.A.T. and other social activities, including the Super Bowl party hosted during the Feb. 6 breakout, allow juveniles to become more prosocial. However, the lines between punishment, accountability and rehabilitation are blurry at best, McConnell said.

“I remember one of the judges I was in front of in a case said, ‘It’s not supposed to be a country club,’ ” said McConnell. “So it depends on your perspective, whether you think that that actually helps people to become more prosocial when you give them pro-social opportunities, right?”

According to a poll conducted by GBAO Strategies, 85 percent of Virginia residents prefer a youth justice system that focuses on prevention and rehabilitation, and the rest favor a system focusing on punishment and incarceration.

McConnell reflected this sentiment, saying that “These kids are finally getting the therapeutic intervention that they need while incarcerated. There are a lot of people that truly believe in the resilience of kids.”

She explained that with the constantly changing director of the DJJ, staff have difficulty keeping up with the shift in philosophy on punishment versus rehabilitation that occurs every four years.

Since the fall of the superpredator myth, Virginia’s government tried to refine its rehabilitation by closing all juvenile correctional facilities other than BAJCC.

The JLARC’s investigation found that “Stakeholders generally agree that the Bon Air facility is not adequately meeting the needs of committed youth and should be replaced. However, there is disagreement on the size, number, and locations of future secure treatment facilities.” 

While the future of the BAJCC remains unclear, the overall state of juvenile offenders in Virginia continues to improve. The JLARC reported that in the last 10 years, the youth in Virginia’s juvenile justice system has dropped by 70 percent.