Overwhelmed Juvenile Detention Centers Fail to Curb Violence and Misconduct, City Watchdog Finds

City-run juvenile detention centers have become overwhelmed and more difficult to manage in the seven years since more teens transitioned into the system, according to a detailed report released by the city Department of Investigation Thursday.

The 75-page report is based on interviews with city Administration for Children Services employees, confidential complaints and observations of youth development specialists, and focused on the child welfare agency’s two youth detention facilities: Horizon Juvenile Center in The Bronx and Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn.

The number of youths detained at the two centers has shot up dramatically since a 2017 state law known as “Raise the Age” began transitioning 16- and 17-year-olds from the adult to juvenile criminal justice system, according to DOI. The watchdog agency also reasoned that bail reforms passed in 2019 further skewed the youth detention population toward those who are charged with serious violent crimes, while many facing lesser charges are no longer detained after they are charged.

The Raise the Age law, advocates and lawmakers argued was intended to protect older teens from being incarcerated with adults on Rikers Island and other city jails. Previously, New York had been one of just two states that put 16- and 17-year-olds charged with serious felonies with the adult incarcerated population.

But as the juvenile facilities’ populations have ballooned and become more violent, DOI said, the child welfare agency has struggled to keep up. The agency’s point-based system to reward and punish the behavior of incarcerated youths, known as a behavioral management tool, has failed to adequately deter violence and contraband smuggling, the DOI report found.

The centers’ crisis intervention system, which prioritizes the use of non-physical and de-escalation interventions to correct misconducts, has also been “insufficient” in maintaining order within the short-staffed facilities, where employees are already under-trained and overstretched with mandatory, near-daily overtime shifts, the report added.

“These challenging circumstances call for ACS to strengthen its behavioral management tools to better track and respond to violent and criminal conduct by residents in order to protect both residents and staff,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said in a written statement. “These facilities need additional staff, and better protections and training for them.”

The report paints a dark picture, saying that “nearly every staff member with whom DOI spoke consistently stated, in substance, that ACS was ill-prepared for the new demographics of the RTA population, particularly the residents’ age, physical size, and violent criminal history.”

And, it said, workers who are often pulling 16 hours shifts as ACS struggles to fill the difficult jobs “consistently cited a lack of physical safety for staff and residents, facilities controlled by residents rather than by staff, a lack of consequences for violent behavior and a lack of support” from facility and ACS management.

In one incident cited by the report, in which a youth slashed an employee, a staff member reported hearing the resident say “cutting season on staff has just begun, and we are 17 so nothing will happen.” In another incident, a resident became frustrated that he had not been awarded points by the behavioral management tool and punched a staff member, causing them to take a workers’ compensation leave. The report also documents escape attempts and assaults between residents.

Meanwhile, youth development specialists reported their supervisors instructing them to overlook marijuana consumption to “keep residents high so staff don’t have to deal,” and to give “residents what they want if you don’t want issues.”

Stephanie Gendell, a spokesperson for ACS, acknowledged the challenges of managing an expanding population, but noted the agency has continued to develop and implement strategies to improve safety and security conditions since the DOI reviewed the facilities from March 2022 to April 2023. She pointed to a federal monitor report — also released on Thursday and based on a review of the Horizon center between July 2023 and June 2024 — as a sign of improvement.

“This DOI report does not reflect the current improved status in secure detention including the significant progress and beneficial changes that have been made,” Gendell said. “Specifically, despite the increased census, violence is down, supportive programming has significantly increased, restorative work with youth is making a difference, and we are seeing improved educational outcomes for youth in detention, including more high school graduations, GED attainment, and college participation.”

Dramatic Increases

The detention population in Horizon and Crossroads increased by three and four folds, respectively, in 2023 compared to when Raise the Age first took effect in 2018, the DOI report found. At Horizon, the census jumped to 118 from 28 and at Crossroad to 122 from 24.

Because Raise the Age allows youth to remain in juvenile facilities until they turn 21, the centers’ populations include 18- to 20-year-olds who have been detained there since they were 16 or 17.

The population of those aged 16 to 20 at Horizon was nearly 10 times the size it was in 2018, according to the DOI report. The number of youths detained there on murder charges increased by nearly 16 times, as many who would have previously been jailed at Rikers ended up there instead.

At Crossroads, 87 youths who were 16 to 20 were detained in 2023 — more than five times the 16 in 2018. Nearly 23 times as many of those teens faced murder charges compared to the three in 2018.

DOI also raised concerns about staff and resident safety in the centers, noting incidents of slashing, punching and threats. As THE CITY reported in 2019, the use of force against teens at these centers has also become more frequent .

Overall, between March 2022 and April 2023, ACS’s incident tracking system reported a total of 550 altercations and assaults between youths and 314 assaults toward staff in the two facilities, according to the DOI. The department, however, noted it did not have data prior to the implementation of the Raise the Age Law to compare those numbers to.

Improvements Put Concerns in Context

The federal monitor report released Thursday on the Horizon center, however, indicates that these incidents are beginning to taper off with some consistency.

Compared to when its oversight was extended in 2021 , the monitor noted “continued reductions in the overall frequency of youth violence” in 2024, when the rate of assault between youths and toward staff members dropped by between 45% and 65%.

Gendell also pointed out that while the average daily population across the two detention centers increased by 30% between May 2023 and March 2024, the overall rate of youth assaults on staff and on each other fell by 35% and 37% at Crossroads, respectively, and dropped by 32% and 48% at Horizon.

The federal monitor report also notes ACS’ “deliberate good faith efforts to improve its practice,” “significant investments” in program offerings to residents and gradual increase in staffing.

So far, according to DOI, the child welfare agency has already implemented two of the 15 DOI recommendations and accepted seven additional ones — including efforts to prevent resident tampering of the behavioral management system, to review job descriptions for youth development specialists and to improve staff training.

But ACS also declined several suggestions which would impose more stringent and punitive measures toward detained youths, and which would run counter to protections of their privacy — including a request for the agency to more frequently file orders to move youths to adult facilities, to disclose additional  information about a youth’s charges and background to staff, and to limit staff discretion not to re-arrest and further charge youths who assault staff or other residents.

In the meantime, 37% more city youths were accused of serious crimes including murders, robberies and assaults last year when compared to 2017 — which suggests juvenile detention centers are increasingly under stress as more young people facing criminal charges are placed there while their cases are pending in court or after sentencing.

Reform advocates like the Legal Aid Society, however, said the overcrowding in youth detention facilities is a reflection of a “widespread judicial disregard” for the 2019 bail reform aimed in part to help reduce the pre-trial detention population.

Legal Aid added in a statement that funding shortfalls have hindered key reforms in juvenile justice, while others also advocated for more funding to help make sure these efforts reach their full potential.

“Nothing in the DOI report supports meddling with Raise the Age, which has helped protect countless children from the harms of adult jails,” said Naila Awan, interim co-director of policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“Raise the Age is not only a data-driven reform that makes our state fairer and safer, but also a racial justice imperative to protect youth of color. To ensure its successful implementation, our leaders must provide adequate funding and ensure young New Yorkers have access to the services and support they deserve.”

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