KEYRIS MANZANARES: In a journal sent to his mother, a boy describes daily life at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center, writing, ‘there is no rehabilitation.

MOTHER: The major concern at that facility is staffing, which then snowballs into a very bigger picture of everything that its affecting.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: This Hampton Roads mom asked VPM News to conceal her identity and her sons for fear of retribution.

MOTHER: It's affecting the kids mental health.

It's affecting their schooling.

It's affecting their access to communication with their family, exercise, showers.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: She says Virginia's Department of Juvenile Justice, tasked with overseeing Bon Air JCC, isn't properly taking care of her son.

MOTHER: I feel that they have no priority at this point.

Right now, they are not addressing-- they're not rehabilitating these children.

They're not giving children access to anything that is going to help them be a better person.

Amy Walters, senior attorney at Legal Aid Justice Center, says rehabilitation isn't happening because of reported lockdowns.

AMY WALTERS: What we're hearing from kids, their families, defense attorneys across the state, is that the kids that are housed in the correctional center are not getting the kind of enrichment activities, educational activities, therapeutic activities, all the things we would want our youth to be receiving from the state while incarcerated for, you know, the goal of their rehabilitation.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Last week, DJJ Director Amy Floriano was pressed for answers about understaffing and lockdowns by a state panel that reviews complex youth services like juvenile incarceration.

AMY FLORIANO: We do not prioritize confinement for our youth.

We find that with juveniles and juvenile mindset, it's really counterproductive.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Following Floriano's presentation, the panel's bipartisan lawmakers unanimously voted to send Republican Gov.

Glenn Youngkin a letter calling for an independent investigation into Bon Air JCC.

VPM News reached out to DJJ for an interview with Floriano, she declined to participate.

The Hampton Roads mom says she will continue sounding the alarm.

MOTHER: I want to make change for my son, for all of the other kids in there that are not having access to their family members, which is the core... of their support would be their family.

And we don't get to access our children enough.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Virginia's Commission on Youth is set to meet again in May.

Keyris Manzanares, VPM News.