Here's what life is like inside the Winnebago County Juvenile Detention Center

Teens locked up inside the Winnebago County Juvenile Detention Center live in a cramped world of cinder block walls, thick metal doors and stainless steel tables and toilets.

Staying on your best behavior earns points that a juvenile can spend on items like books, snacks, extra phone calls or the luxury of a square of carpet. They get structure, gym time where they can play basketball, schooling from Rockford Public School teachers and access to therapy.

"Each kid has something that is important to them," said Debbie Jarvis, director of court services for the Illinois 17th Judicial Circuit. "Some of the kids thrive in this structured environment. Nobody wants to be here or to come back here, but some do quite well here."

Jarvis and the court system are working with the Winnebago County Board to renovate and expand center, where officials say there are more demands today than ever before to provide rehabilitative services to teenagers charged with increasingly violent crimes.

More: Officials: Expansion needed at Winnebago County Juvenile Detention Center

"We use every inch of this place," said Juvenile Detention Center Superintendent Julie McCray-Grotto.

Officials are asking architects from Rockford-based Larson & Darby to conduct a needs analysis and work up some general feasibility and cost estimates for an addition.

Among the options is moving a juvenile intake assessment center to the detention center itself to improve efficiency and staffing levels. Another is adding space to restore a day reporting center that would bring back tutoring, meals, recreation and transportation as an alternative to detention.

Life in detention

Waking hours are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. inside the 48-bed detention center. Girls and boys are housed in separate pods or wings.

To wind up here, a judge has found probable cause that a juvenile has committed a serious crime, usually a violent one. The judge has also found that they pose a danger to the community, their family or themselves. The judge has ordered that the teens be held until their cases can be adjudicated.

Some juveniles arrested after hours can be held in detention if they score a certain way on an assessment inventory until they see a judge.

There were 28 juveniles in the center Feb. 7. The youngest child was 13 and the oldest was 18. Most are between the ages of 14 and 17, but they technically can be as young as 10 and as old as 21. There were 402 juveniles admitted into the center in 2023, up about 7% from 377 the previous year.

The average length of a juvenile's stay was 29 days last year and the average daily population was 37.

Juveniles spend their nights in cells about the size of a walk-in closet. There is a "bed," which is more of a platform with a mat on it. There is a metal seat and tiny table protruding from a wall. Each cell has a stainless steel toilet, stainless steel sink and stainless steel mirror.

There is a fluorescent light on the wall and tiny window. One cell during a recent visit by the Rockford Register Star had a book called "Summer Ball" splayed open on the bed, holding a place for its reader's return.

There is a common area in the center of each pod where the detainees can socialize and play games. Juveniles wear different color shirts that symbolize four levels of behavior from gold which is the best down to green for kids who are in the redirect group. Brown is for new detainees.

During the spring and summer, there is a garden where kids can learn about growing vegetables.

Reforms underway

The center has fallen under intense scrutiny in recent weeks following a critical report from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice that found water was being cut off to cells for hours at a time after juveniles had purposefully caused flooding.

It found that long periods of isolated detention were being used as a punishment and that some of the juveniles were not getting the required amount of education each week.

Jarvis said the Detention Center has taken steps to correct many of the issues raised in the report. It has ended the practice of using timed confinement as punishment for misbehavior. And they avoid cutting off water to preempt juveniles from stuffing toilets and sinks with sheets, clothes and books to cause flooding.

Using a $400,000 grant from the Winnebago County Community Mental Health Board, three full-time therapists are now on duty at the center from Freedom Behavioral Health. They help frustrated or enraged juveniles control their emotions. Their offices were set up in what had been a two-bed pod.

There are also psychological services provided to the detainees by personnel from Rosecrance.

The center has added a $93,000 body scanner that reduced if not completely replaced the need for strip searches during intake, a far more trauma informed approach, Jarvis said.

And Winnebago County is spending about $1 million to replace the building's aged heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

But the center has run out of space, Jarvis said.

"We have to have cognitive behavioral therapy that we give to the kids," Jarvis said. "We have that through Freedom Behavioral Health and Rosecrance, both of them provide those needs, but we don't have space for them. That's where we've had to convert a pod into office space for them. So that's an example of something that we're saying we absolutely need to have."

Jeff Kolkey writes about government, economic development and other issues for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at  (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on Twitter @jeffkolkey.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Day reporting could return to Winnebago County Juvenile Detention