Opinion: Addressing ‘Chaotic’ Conditions at NYC’s Youth Detention Centers

The young people enduring these conditions are overwhelmingly low-income and from communities of color Their suffering is not inevitable and the city has immediate options it could act on currently to improve conditions Basketball courts at Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brownsville Brooklyn Adi Talwar City Limits In the richest city in America with a billion budget about children are locked in city custody at youth detention centers without beds to sleep in or rooms of their own They haven t been convicted of a crime only accused and under the law they are presumed innocent Yet the inhumane conditions they endure make clear they are being treated as if they are beneath the law while the city shows little appetite to fix it At any given time a third of young people in the custody of the Administration for Children s Services ACS New York City s child welfare agency that operates the youth detention facilities has no assigned room They sleep in classrooms hallways or visiting areas spaces unfit for anyone let alone vulnerable youth A great number of are merely provided plastic cots commonly referred to as boats several directly on the floor and are moved late at night and awakened by a m exhausted disoriented and still without a place to rest or any sense of safety or stability function d u ac var s d createElement 'script' s type 'text javascript' s src 'https a omappapi com app js api min js' s async true s dataset user u s dataset campaign ac d getElementsByTagName 'head' appendChild s document 'u kmqsczew vunxutxmd' The habitat is filthy and chaotic Rodents and vermin scurry across the floors A therapist from Bellevue Juvenile Justice Mental Fitness Services which serves youth in these facilities not long ago testified in a Bronx trial episode that the context is very chaotic It s a pretty dangerous space It s very dirty It s unpredictable It s loud There s absolutely no consistency There s a lot going on There s my word would be chaotic at all times It s unsafe There s nothing normal or assured about it The stress of overcrowding has created an uptick in violence The mayor s own Management Assessment acknowledges that a critical increase in population in a limited space has presented additional stressors on the detention habitat In current weeks alone one teen required stitches to his face after being attacked without supervision Others have been hospitalized with broken bones and stab wounds Specific fights reportedly erupt over the most of basic reservoir of all a mattress ACS does not dependably tell families or lawyers when a child is hurt further deepening their isolation Because common areas double as sleeping spaces mentoring and services the very things that are supposed to distinguish youth detention from adult facilities are constantly disrupted New York law mandates schooling for detained youth but ACS often fails to deliver even that This is not new Reports of overcrowding and inhumane conditions date back at least two years Yet ACS response has been to seek state waivers from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services which has unconditionally approved the requests despite knowing full well the conditions in the facilities The waivers allow ACS to ignore critical housing regulations instead of fixing the difficulty The agency has even floated transferring youth to Rikers Island a facility mired in a full-fledged humanitarian problem and soon to be placed under outside receivership as if that were an acceptable fix Let s be clear if these were the children of affluent families this problem would have been resolved long ago The young people enduring these conditions are overwhelmingly low-income and from communities of color Their suffering is not inevitable and the city has immediate options it could act on in current times to improve conditions including Forthwith reducing the population in these facilities by providing community-based alternatives to detention limiting the duration of displacement for youth without a room ensuring access to teaching and services for all youth providing secure storage for personal belongings publicly reporting content on youth housing status and facility conditions and notifying parents guardians and attorneys within hours when a youth lacks assigned housing or is denied offerings New York City cannot continue to warehouse kids like luggage in its detention centers These are children who deserve safety teaching and a chance to grow into particular better than what the system is presently offering them Dawne Mitchell is the chief attorney of the Juvenile Rights Practice at The Legal Aid Society The post Opinion Addressing Chaotic Conditions at NYC s Youth Detention Centers appeared first on City Limits