Friday, July 13, 2012

Detention Center: Safe for Youths, Too

Greenville
Jul 13, 2012

Stanley Melvin, director of the Pitt Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Greenville, found a valuable mentor in his Goldsboro High school basketball coach in the early 1970s. The late Coach Norvell Lee helped Melvin learn that he has a heart for kids.

Melvin said the coach wanted his young men to realize that they, too, could and should be positive influences beyond a basketball court, gym or classroom. He knew that children respond remarkably well to positive attention, especially when it comes from talented basketball players like Melvin.

Coach Lee had his team give mini-clinics in basketball to elementary school kids. Melvin enjoyed participating in the clinics and “really liked those kids.”

Melvin's talent was good enough for a basketball scholarship to North Carolina Central University. In college he found himself again immersed in working with youths, this time at a summer basketball camp in a Durham housing project recreation center. It was eye-opening for Melvin, whose life had been relatively safe and had not exposed him to truly underprivileged youths. “I didn't really understand they were at risk until I really looked at their surroundings and heard gunshots,” he said. “There was always a public safety car screaming by, and I realized that was kind of a tough neighborhood.

“That recreation center was a safe place where they could go and play their games.”

Melvin said some of the youths felt hopeless.

Those early experiences — discovering his heart for kids and the risks that the underprivileged ones often face — proved to be assets for Melvin when he graduated from N.C. Central with a degree in recreation management. He landed his first job in Juvenile Justice in 1979 as a recreation worker at Dobbs Youth Development Center in Kinston.

In four years, he rose to recreation supervisor. Working under the supervision of the now retired Director George Graham, he learned the value of vocational training for the young people at Dobbs YDC.

Later, Melvin was a social worker at Dobbs YDC for two years. “That allowed me to see the clinical side of Juvenile Justice,” he said.

Afterward, he was exposed to the education component as a teacher and coach at Dobbs' school. “I got to see the value of technology and lesson planning,” he said.

Melvin's life and work experiences taught him that safety is a powerful and positive influence on troubled youths. He has made it the core of his philosophy of operating the Pitt Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

The Department of Public Safety's Juvenile Justice Division operates nine regional detention centers across the state. They provide secure, temporary housing for juveniles who are waiting to go to court or to be placed in alternative living arrangements. The juveniles are youths who have been charged with committing an offense when they were less than age 16.

Unlike an adult jail, detention centers are statutorily bound to hold a juvenile no more than five days without a hearing to determine the need for continued secure custody. As long as the juvenile remains in secure custody, further hearings are held at intervals of no more than 10 calendar days.

Melvin said that, although youth detention is generally short, the time affords an opportunity to effect behavioral change through programs and services based on the juvenile's individual needs.

Melvin explained that safety was his top priority when he was named director in 1994, but it was more than concerns about physical harm or escape attempts.

“My goal was, No. 1, to create and maintain an environment that was safe,” he said. “Some [of the detained youths] have slept in liquor houses, have slept on streets, and they don't feel safe.

“I really wanted a therapeutic type of environment ... where the kids were going to be able to feel they can come and talk to us about things, and that's what we have here.”

Melvin said he ensures the juveniles are safe from each other. The center has zero tolerance for gang activity. Rooms are locked to keep others out. Other than special exceptions, each room is occupied by only one youth.

The detention center should not be frightening, he said.

“When a youth walks through the door, they don't hear crying and shouting, no banging on doors,” Melvin said. “They don't smell urine, they don't hear anybody threatening anybody and the staff [members] talk to them humanely.”

Other elements that contribute to the center's safe and effective environment are structure, community support and staffing choices.

Melvin said most of the youths at the detention center have been allowed to drift without direction or mentoring, parental or otherwise.

“That's dangerous,” he said. “We give them structure through consistency, purposeful interaction, academics and recreation.”

The center's programs encourage community involvement, to help the youths sense acceptance.

“The families have let them down, their schools have thrown them out, their communities have let them down,” Melvin said. Through groups who minister to the youths in various ways, he said, the programs “bring the community to children who have been removed from the community.”

Since he began working at Pitt Regional Juvenile Detention Center, Melvin has been meticulous about who works there, ensuring a safe and effective staff.

“I want staff who will say from the heart that they really love working with children,” he said. “When I'm interviewing [job candidates], they have an advantage with me. I can tell if they will be a good fit for this family.”

Other attributes for working at the detention center are patience, attitude and professionalism, Melvin said. For himself, Melvin knows the value of higher education and has earned a master's degree in criminal justice from East Carolina University.

Melvin said the bottom line is about the youths and safety.

“We want to try to help them, to correct what we can while we can, because the clock is ticking,” he said.

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Contact: George Dudley
Phone: (919) 733-5027