SC Opens $23M Mental Health Center for Detained Youth

South Carolina's newest facility isn't about punishment. It's about healing the state's most vulnerable young people.

The William B. Byars Treatment Center opened this week in Columbia, offering specialized psychiatric care to incarcerated teenagers whose mental health needs have long overwhelmed traditional detention centers. Built with $23 million in state funding, the 24,000-square-foot facility represents the end of a five-year effort to stop warehousing mentally ill youth in juvenile jails.

"Our juvenile justice facilities are not designed to function as intensive mental health treatment centers, yet that is increasingly what we have been asked to do," said Eden Hendrick, head of the Department of Juvenile Justice. The new center bridges a critical gap for young people ages 12 to 21 who need more than detention centers can provide but less than full psychiatric hospitalization.

Four teenagers have already transferred from the state's youth detention center to begin treatment. At capacity, the facility will serve 24 young people at once.

The need is staggering. As many as 70% of detained teenagers nationwide have diagnosable mental health problems, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics. Many arrive in the juvenile justice system already grappling with trauma, substance abuse, and untreated behavioral health issues.

The center is named after Bill Byars, a former family court judge who spent eight years turning around South Carolina's troubled juvenile justice system. Before his death in 2019, Byars fought against the overcrowding and abuse that led to federal court intervention.

The Ripple Effect

This facility does more than treat individual teenagers. It frees up detention center staff to focus on rehabilitation and safety for other youth in the system, creating better conditions across the board.

Correct Care of South Carolina will operate the center, bringing specialized behavioral health expertise that traditional detention staff simply can't provide. The approach recognizes what advocates have known for years: locking up mentally ill teenagers without treatment doesn't make communities safer. It just makes sick kids sicker.

South Carolina legislators recognized this reality in 2022 when they approved funding for construction. Now, after years of planning, the first young people are finally getting the care they deserve.

Twenty more teenagers will soon have access to treatment that could change the trajectory of their entire lives.