The Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center (NVJDC) is undertaking a multi-year series of capital improvements, in addition to becoming its own food authority.
Leaders running the facility at 200 S. Whiting Street say they’re gradually changing it from a traditional detention center to a more rehabilitative facility. Proposed changes for the jail that houses 10- to 18-year-old kids across Northern Virginia include creating a more cheerful entry area for families, replacing the 64-year-old concrete slab beds on which kids sleep, and modifying overhead lighting to improve sleep.
The facility
The detention center was built in 1958 and is regulated by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice and overseen by the Juvenile Detention Commission. The Commission consists of two members from Arlington, one from Falls Church, and two from Alexandria. It houses youth with serious offenses and behavioral issues from the three jurisdictions, which significantly contribute toward its funding.
“How do we make this facility less traumatic, less stressful for parents and the children confined here?” asked Johnitha McNair, NVJDC executive director. “A lot of the work will change everything about how it feels and what it looks like.”
The NVJDC experienced a 72% reduction in the number of juveniles in the facility between 2006 and 2019, resulting in a decrease from 70 to 46 beds in 2016, according to a cost-benefit analysis by the Moss Group.
The facility houses 35 residents, as well as 14 at-risk youth living in court-mandated, unlocked shelter care. National Capital Treatment & Recovery, a substance abuse recovery program, also uses one unit.
Commission Chair John Lawrence stated that there is no question that the facility is a jail.
“It’s not daycare,” Lawrence said. “But with kids, you especially want to focus on the positive side, the rehabilitation, the trauma-informed care, treating their mental and emotional needs, a lot of anger management, substance abuse. We’ve got a national capital drug treatment program nobody else in the state has, so we want to get it to where when they leave they won’t be coming back.”
The facility’s future has been questioned for years, with rumors circulating of potential closure. Last year, the previous chair of the commission clashed with City Council over conversations about the facility’s future.
Recently, however, a positive facility assessment was conducted by members of RAISE, Alexandria’s Trauma-Informed Community Network.
“During our tour of the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center, we were deeply moved by the changes we observed,” the assessment says. “What was once a sterile, institutional space has been reimagined into an environment that radiates care, hope, and possibility. From the thoughtful inclusion of murals, art, and light, to the Director’s deeply relational leadership, the commitment to transformation is unmistakable.”
The assessment continued, “We left the facility inspired by the care we saw and the vision that guides this team’s work. NVJDC is building something truly special: a place where safety and dignity are not in tension, but in partnership. A place where young people are not defined by what they’ve done, but by who they are becoming.”
RAISE made a number of recommendations, which the Commission unanimously supported that McNair implement as many as practical. Those recommendations are:
- Improving the website and entry process to better prepare and support visiting families
- Enhancing the sleep environment by exploring alternatives to overhead lighting at night that maintain safety while protecting circadian rhythms
- Increasing visual and language accessibility, including signage in multiple languages and sensory supports for youth with disabilities
- Continuing to de-institutionalize the environment with more natural elements, calming décor, and trauma-informed furnishings
- Expanding youth and family voice in facility planning and feedback loops
- Supporting staff wellness, professional development, and training in trauma-informed care
- Improving privacy in shower and changing areas to reinforce dignity and a sense of psychological safety
Lawrence said that he wants all the recommendations implemented.
“I can’t think of anything in this report I wouldn’t like to see happen,” Lawrence said.
USDA funding
The NVJDC is regulated by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). In March, DJJ informed the Commission that it would no longer conduct the necessary facility inspections to get $100,000 worth of annual U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to feed NVJDC detainees and residents.
“USDA funding was always managed through DJJ because they would come in inspect our kitchen, you know, annually, do all the things to say it’s a clean kitchen. Their food temps are stored, right? They’re maintaining hot foods, you know, all those things well last,” McNair said.
The move prompted the Commission to pay for the food out of its own reserves for fiscal year 2026. In the meantime, McNair says she’s identified a staffer who can get the necessary training to be able to conduct facility inspections in order to get the USDA funding. The move would essentially make NVJDC its own food authority.
“I cannot train her until next January for us to even have a shot at getting the funding for next year,” McNair said. “So, in this budget, we’re on our own.”
McNair continued, “Every month, the (NVJDC staffer) has to report how many children were fed breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and calculate those fundings. Then she has to show how she’s inspecting the kitchens, the quarterly inspections, and then the big annual inspections that DJJ would show up and do.”
Staffing issues
The facility has long struggled with staffing issues. McNair is currently looking to hire more than a dozen new guards, known as detention specialists. The starting rate is about $50,000, and staff routinely work overtime. McNair is also required to have between five and ten staffers on-site at all times.
“We have staffing requirements,” McNair said. During the day, we have to have one staff member for every eight residents during waking hours. When our kids go to bed, you have to have one staff for every eight residents.”
McNair is looking for:
- Detention specialists
- Assistant shift supervisor
- Shelter care counselor
- Nurse
- Food service worker
Priorities
McNair said that she’s changed the culture since starting as executive director in 2017.
“When I first got here, it was traditional detention,” she said. “I took them away from wearing orange jumpsuits. Orange jumpsuits say one thing immediately — inmate. So, what’s the uniform they wear now? Polo shirts and blue pants.”
In addition to her green-lit improvements, McNair says her next focus is replacing the concrete slab beds that the kids sleep on with polycarbonate Norix Furniture detention-grade bed frames with built-in storage. She already has a number of the new beds in storage, and is preparing a proposal for the Commission to move kids to another unit, demolish the concrete slabs, buy all the new beds and install them, and then move the kids back into a newly refurbished area.
As for her immediate plans, McNair said she and her staff will focus on making improvements to the building entrance, family waiting area, and more within the next several months.
“That’s all changing right now as we speak,” McNair said.
