(The Center Square) — New York state’s ‘raise the age’ law has packed the state’s understaffed juvenile facilities with older, more violent criminals, according to a scathing new report by a watchdog group.
The report by New York City’s Department of Investigation highlighted what it described as a concerning pattern of detainee misconduct, criminal activity and lack of staff control at the Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx and Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn, which are now housing an older population facing more serious and violent charges.
DOI investigators said in the report that existing disciplinary measures by the Administration for Children’s Services, which operates the facilities, are “not enough” to prevent violence among detainees or keep out drugs and other contraband.
“This ineffectiveness is demonstrated by the high levels of youth-on-youth and youth-on-staff violence, security breaches, and recovery of contraband including weapons and cell phones,” the report’s authors wrote in the 75-pager report. “ACS staff are not properly trained or prepared to respond to the incidents that regularly occur within the facilities.”
“Our view is that the current behavioral management systems, training for staff, don’t meet the needs of the current population, and therefore they really don’t meet the needs of the staff either, and that’s fundamentally what we think needs to change,” Jocelyn Strauber, the division’s commissioner, said in a statement.
The ACS issued a statement acknowledging that serving older youth charged with more serious crimes “poses additional challenges.” The agency has “achieved compelling reductions in the frequency of youth violence” and “continues to develop and implement strategies to improve overall security.”
“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,” the agency said.
However, the report prompted critics who argued that the state was ill-prepared for the shift in the criminal justice system to call for repealing the law.
New York City Councilman Robert Holden, who chairs the Council’s Commonsense Caucus, said the report “confirms what we’ve been saying all along Raise the Age was reckless legislation that put juveniles and staff in danger by placing violent offenders in facilities that can’t handle them.”
Holden said state lawmakers “forced this flawed law as part of a pro-criminal package that included bail reform, changes to discovery,” leaving state correctional officials “unprepared” and said 18-year-old offenders should have remained in the custody of the state prison system.
“These elected officials have failed New Yorkers and have blood on their hands,” Holden said in a post on social media. “Repeal these laws now.”
In 2017, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18 and allowing young adult offenders to remain in juvenile facilities until they turn 21. Cuomo and other supporters of the new requirements, which were approved as part of a budget package, said they were designed to keep older teens out of the adult criminal justice system.
Since then, Republicans have pushed unsuccessfully to change the law to exempt those who commit violent felonies and make changes to the state’s bail reform laws, both of which they’ve argued have contributed to violent crime and jeopardize public safety.
