KEYRIS MANZANARES: Behind the barbed wire at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center, Virginia's only state-run facility for young people, experts and advocates say a system intended to rehabilitate is nearing a breaking point.

So far, this year there have been reports of incarcerated youths starting fires and charges against a guard for sexual assault.

And over the past year, logs obtained by VPM News, show dozens of calls to the Chesterfield Police Department.

Two of which were for reports of suicide.

ANDY BLOCK: This is a crisis.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Andy Block led the states juvenile justice agency from 2014 to 2019.

He's now the director of the University of Virginias State and Local Government policy clinic.

Block says all of the reported incidents point to the facility being in a precarious situation.

ANDY BLOCK: Overcrowding and lack of coverage and lack of access to services, comes when you have more kids than the staffing levels support.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: The staff vacancy rate at Bon Air JCC is 50.8%, according to a 2024 state Senate report.

Indicating there aren't enough employees to supervise the 170 young people currently held at the facility.

VALERIE SLATER: We already know that when children are incarcerated for long periods of time, it's detrimental.

But imagine being incarcerated and left in your room for days at a time.

That is -- it's demoralizing.

It is truly deteriorating the mental health of these young people.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Valerie Slater, executive director of RISE for Youth, says understaffing contributes to to unsafe conditions, prolonged room restrictions and little to no enrichment or educational programming.

VALERIE SLATER: It's alarming because children who are committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice, it is the intent the court intends for young people to go into this facility and to receive rehabilitative treatment.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Young people at Bon Air JCC reported high levels of “idleness and boredom” due to prolonged confinement, in a 2024 external investigation.

ANDY BLOCK: When you have kids locked in their cells all day, when you don't have enough staff to take care of the kids, when you have old, outdated facilities that are potentially overcrowded, it's really hard to do good work, number one, and it's all too easy for something terrible to happen.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: DJJ Director Amy Floriano declined to be interviewed for this story.

A spokesperson for the department did not provide answers to a list of questions submitted by VPM News.

ANDY BLOCK: These are children who are now in the custody of the state -- of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

So theoretically, they're in all of our custody, and we need to take responsibility for those children, and we need to make sure theyre OK. KEYRIS MANZANARES: Advocates are continuing to call for transparency from DJJ and hope that bringing these issues to light may lead to changes at Bon Air.

Keyris Manzanares, VPM News.