The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice is a state agency of Virginia, headquartered on the twentieth floor of the 600 East Main Street building in Richmond. The DJJ operates and is responsible for the vast majority of local Court Service Units across the Commonwealth, as well as the one remaining state-operated Juvenile Correctional Center, and Juvenile Detention Centers. On any given day, the department has somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 youth under some kind of supervision, with more than 90 percent of those youth being supervised in their communities through diversion, probation or parole. The department’s mission is to protect the public by helping court involved youth become productive citizens. It emphasizes four cornerstones of positive youth development which include a feeling of safety in one’s surroundings, a strong sense of connection to one’s community and supportive family members and/or other adults, a belief in the purpose of activities such as education, treatment and vocational training or actual work, and a sense of fairness in the accountability, consequences and opportunities one receives in response to their actions. Over the last several years, the department has undertaken a rigorous self-analysis to make sure that they are using taxpayer resources effectively, and getting desired outcomes want for the youth, families and communities we serve. This analysis led DJJ to develop an ambitious plan to transform its work to get better outcomes for the children, families and communities we serve. DJJ transformation efforts break down into three core initiatives: Safely Reduce the use of the large and aging juvenile correctional facilities; Reform correctional and treatment practices within the facilities and with youth returning to communities; and Develop a plan to ultimately Replace DJJ’s two facilities with smaller, regional, and treatment oriented juvenile correctional centers and a statewide continuum of local alternative placements and evidence-based services.
Personnel Organization
As of April 2019, the DJJ executive staff consists of six members:
Deputy Director of Community Programs: Valerie Boykin
Deputy Director of Administration and Finance: Jamie Patten
Deputy Director of Education: Lisa Floyd
In March 2019, Andrew K. Block Jr. announced he would be stepping down effective April 19 to be replaced by Valerie Boykin.
Facilities
All DJJ secure correctional facilities are in unincorporated areas. Facilities include:
Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center - Chartered in 1906 by a private group and opened in Bon Air on a 206 acre farm in 1910, the "Virginia Home and Industrial School for Girls" was transferred to the State of Virginia in 1914 to enable care and training of "incorrigible white girls"... Currently serving both males and females ages 11–20
Central Admission and Placement
Closed facilities
Barrett Juvenile Correctional Center - Opened in 1915 as the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls, it was originally established by the Virginia Federation of Colored Women's Clubs and Janie Porter Barrett. The state took over management of the facility in 1920 and began incarcerating adjudicated black females. In 1965 the facility racially integrated. In 1977 it established a pilot program where male and female juvenile prisoners lived together, and the prison began to only serve male juveniles in 1978.
Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center - Serves older males up to age 21, it held about 230 inmates Facility officially closed on June 9, 2017, after having been slated for closure by the DJJ in March 2016
Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center - Housed males ages 18–20 Due to budget cuts by the Governor, Culpeper closed in June 2014 to become an Adult Women's Prison with the Virginia Department of Corrections. It had an opening scheduled for July 2017, but it was delayed until July 2018.
Hanover Juvenile Correctional Center - It was established in 1898, and the State of Virginia acquired the facility in 1920. The complex had space for 120 prisoners.
