It’s known by police, prosecutors, and inmates as the Juvenile Detention Center, or JDC. Bernalillo County officials call it the Youth Services Center. At its core, though, it’s a juvenile jail.

4 Investigates is going inside to see what has changed after a turbulent year at the facility and asking the question: How should juvenile jails be used with the changing demands for these facilities? 

The Christmas Riot 

On Christmas Day in 2023, an understaffed group at the YSC lost control of the facility.  The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office responded in riot gear and gas masks. Juvenile inmates barricaded doors, broke windows, and TVs, put soap on the floors, bound other inmates’ hands, and made makeshift weapons.

After the BCSO deputies secured the facility, some called for accountability for the inmates, others called for county officials running the facility to be held accountable. 

“I think it shined a light on something that was happening that nobody wanted to listen to,” said Vanessa Hulliger, founder of Stronger Together, Never Alone.

She calls what happened on Christmas a protest, became of the conditions inside the juvenile jail. 

Her son, Noah Duran, spent more than a year there awaiting his murder trial. 

“It can happen to anyone,” Hulliger said. 

Hulliger says she tried to stop her son in the days leading up to the moment her 16 year old shot and killed another man during a drug deal. She drug-tested her son when she grew suspicious, she called the police when she found a gun hidden beneath a car outside their home, she called the police again when her son ran away from home.  

“I didn’t understand the system,” she said. “I was under the impression that the police were there to help you, and I didn’t get the help that I thought I was going to get.” 

Two days after her last call to the police, Duran was in the hospital, shot four times and detained for murder. 

Hulliger started Stronger Together, Never Alone, a support group for families of incarcerated youth. It is evolving into an advocacy group to try and better the juvenile justice picture in New Mexico.

She identified frequent strip searches of kids, withholding food and hygiene materials, dirty laundry and lack of programming as the biggest issues at the YSC. 

“Jail is not there to be comfortable,” said Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen. .

He says the Christmas riot is an example of how kids are not held accountable. 

Deputies identified three ringleaders of the riot. All three were initially charged for the damage caused on Christmas. However, because New Mexico’s juvenile justice system doesn’t allow prosecutors to “stack” charges or run sentences consecutively, and because all of the juveniles charged with damage to the jail were awaiting sentencing on more serious charges, there were effectively no consequences related to the Christmas riot. 

Sheriff Allen is backing Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman’s proposal to allow tougher punishments for some juvenile crimes. 

“This is going to sound very weird, but I believe [the Christmas riot] really was a blessing in disguise,” Allen said. “Because all this culminated into harsh discussions… for us to finally come to the table and for people to have opposing views and opinions and to come down and create great policy for our juveniles.” 

Changes at the YSC 

Lack of staffing, programming and leadership crippled operations at the YSC for months. Changes are slowly improving the picture. 

Tamera Marcantel has been hired as the new director of the YSC. She has seen the changes in the juvenile justice puzzle first-hand. 

“When I started with CYFD back in 2013 we had almost 13 juvenile detention centers. Today we have four,” Marcantel said. 

Since the Christmas riot, Bernalillo County has spent $1.4 million at the YSC. Security, radio communications, body scanners meant to limit strip searches, hygiene materials, staff uniforms, laundry services, education, healthcare — all have seen investments. 

“We’re only one piece of the system. The community has a responsibility in this effort as well,” said Marcantel.

The needs for juvenile detention are changing with the demand demographics. 

“It is a long-term facility now,” Hulliger said. “There’s no way around it.” 

COVID shutdowns and courtroom backlogs played a role in the length of Duran’s detention at YSC. “It was 9 months he hadn’t gone outside,” said Hulliger.

The lack of staffing at the YSC led to an inability to conduct programs for juveniles. During the Christmas riot there was a staff vacancy rate close to 50%, today it’s 22%. 

A decade ago, the average length of stay at the YSC was 14 days and the number of juveniles detained there longer than a year was two. 

Today, the average length of stay is over 50 days, and the number of juveniles detained there longer than a year is 23. That is largely driven by the increased number of kids accused of murder. 

The number of teenage murders has steadily risen since 2019. Inside the YSC there is no separation of juveniles based on age. Allen and Bregman are pushing for 18-year-olds to be transferred to the adult Metropolitan Detention Center. 

Both Allen and Hulliger are pushing for more juvenile programming. 

“We have to change the narrative,” Hulliger said.

She says she does not want to see mothers lose kids to gun violence, drug use, or incarceration.  

Duran is now 21 years old. He is now in an adult prison and will be eligible for parole in his thirties. 

“We have to save our children,” said Hulliger.