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Some teenagers being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Minneapolis were locked in their rooms for prolonged periods of time. Recreational and rehabilitative program time were canceled. And in other cases, wellness and isolation checks were not done in a timely manner. Video footage and observation also revealed to auditors that there were times when teens were confined without cause, even as correctional officers were nearby.

According to a recently released state audit, those JDC conditions didn't occur because the kids did something wrong while in detention. Rather, facility rules and, more disturbingly, teens' rights were violated because of staff shortages — a problem that demands immediate attention.

As Hennepin County public defender Tracy Reid told the Star Tribune, these alleged staffing conditions are causing and exacerbating physical and mental health issues for some young offenders. She sought records about how youth were kept in isolation and eventually obtained a court order that showed the JDC does not track that information.

"The JDC is not a rehabilitative or therapeutic environment, so you already have kids under an enormous amount of stress," said Reid. "So we're seeing increased violence by the children."

"If the staffing shortage is this bad, they need to treat it as an emergency to fix it," Reid said.

The conditions merit an emergency response because of the damage they can cause. Research consistently shows that solitary confinement affects physical and mental health, increasing risks of anxiety, self-harm and suicide. Numerous experts and organizations — including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators — oppose the use of isolation and solitary confinement for incarcerated youth.

Hennepin County, which owns and operates the facility, said in a statement last week that it has begun to take corrective actions. The state audit recommendations called for some corrections to be made by Dec. 5, with other concerns addressed by Dec. 25. Last week, a county corrections official said that progress has been made on hiring and training existing staff and that 20 applicants for juvenile correctional officer positions were expected to be interviewed in the current week.

The county employs 69 full-time JDC officers, yet only 53 are currently active. Minnesota licensing rules require a 1-12 ratio of staff to minors. The JDC upholds a 1-8 ratio for compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, according to officials.

Hennepin County is certainly not alone in battling staffing problems for juvenile detention facilities; staff shortages are a national problem. Teens in North Carolina's juvenile system, for example, are routinely locked alone in their rooms for as many as 23 to 24 hours a day, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit. That suit is seeking class-action status to represent thousands of youth who go through juvenile detention centers every year. Attorneys argue that state use of isolation violates minors' federal constitutional rights.

In an emailed seven-page progress report, JDC officials indicate that some corrective steps have been taken, such as additional staff training, while they are working on other corrective actions. The juvenile justice system must be held to continued strict scrutiny for the safe detention and rehabilitation of Minnesota youth.