This self-portrait was drawn by a teenager enrolled in one of the Center for Court Innovations' QUEST summer art programs that help troubled youth stay out of the detention system.

A Chance for Kids in Trouble

April 2010

The harm done to young people in the State’s juvenile “prisons” has gotten so bad that the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to take over the system if improvements weren’t made.

Last December, The Legal Aid Society filed a class-action lawsuit against the State Office of Children and Family Services, which runs these residential centers, on behalf of the families of children who had suffered broken bones, concussions, and knocked-out teeth at the hands of staff. The children had also been denied psychiatric help despite diagnosed mental health problems. A February piece in The New York Times revealed that psychiatric care was virtually unavailable throughout the entire system. Although the majority of incarcerated youth have mental health problems, Julie Bosman reported, “The State does not have a single full-time staff psychiatrist charged with overseeing the treatment of the 800 or so young people who are detained in State facilities at any given time.”

Multiple studies have proven than confining youth doesn’t work. “A young person can get into a fist fight at school, be sent upstate away from their families, handcuffed, and pushed around by staff. There is no question that this system is turning young people into criminals—89 percent of boys and 81 percent of girls who go to detention are rearrested,” says DeAvery Irons, director of the juvenile justice program at the Correctional Association of New York. “On the other hand, only 20 percent of youth charged with similar crimes who get diverted to alternative programs are rearrested.”

Redirect New York

Eleven residential centers have been closed and experts agree that kids should not be locked up, but counties do not have the financial incentive to fund alternative programs. Finding the funds to implement reform is crucial, which is why The Trust has given $100,000 to the Correctional Association and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids to continue pushing for the passage of the Redirect New York Bill. This bill would allow money earmarked for confinement to be spent on alternative programs, and provide financial incentives to counties that reduce the number of children in confinement by 25 percent. “We need more places for kids to go that aren’t prisons,” says Roderick Jenkins, program officer at The Trust, “and we need the Redirect New York Bill to make that happen.”

“This bill is based on a successful effort in Illinois in which a money-saving pilot program led to its implementation throughout the state,” continues Ms. Irons. “There are start-up costs for Redirect New York, but after a couple of years it will save money by closing costly facilities. It would mean more alternative programs in the City as the State would be reimbursing most of their cost—instead of the City and private funders footing the bill as they are today.”

The coalition of police, district attorneys, advocates, and youth brought together by the two organizations are advocating for the bill’s passage by the State legislature. As Fight Crime is mobilizing local leaders and enlisting its members to support the legislation, the Correctional Association is training youth organizers to lead workshops on the need to close City detention facilities, drafting a policy brief on the economic benefits of facility closures, and pushing for a City Council hearing to discuss the brief’s findings.

Letting Them Know that Someone Cares

Advocating for a more fair and humane justice system is crucial, but troubled kids facing confinement need help now. “There is a much more effective way of helping troubled youth,” says Al Siegel, deputy director of the Center for Court Innovation at the Fund for the City of New York, which has pioneered alternatives to confinement that give youth the option to stay in their schools and live at home while their cases are pending in family court. “The ultimate goal is to provide support and opportunity to troubled children and to demonstrate to the court that they can do better, and don’t need to be locked up.”

A $54,000 grant is helping to expand two of the Center’s successful programs. The QUEST ATD program pairs a case manager with Queens kids ages 11 to 15. “We act as advocates for these kids, and involve their parents, their schools, and therapists, if needed, showing them that the world cares about them and that we have hope for them. They respond when they feel cared about,” says Carolyn Torres, clinical director for QUEST Futures, the program’s mental health component. Case managers work with parents to make sure that the children are attending school and after-school programs, and do curfew checks. The grant also will help expand services just for girls: new workshops on improving self-confidence and mother/daughter communication, and community volunteer opportunities.

In addition, the grant supports QUEST Futures, a program for youth who need psychiatric counseling to deal with issues such as depression, bi-polar disorder, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Living in poverty can make kids feel hopeless and depressed, and “young people often express depression through anger, irritability, and substance abuse, so it’s imperative to treat the depression if we want them to behave better,” continues Ms. Torres. “If a young person needs emotional support, it’s important to find them a psychiatric professional quickly and at a reasonable distance to where they live… These programs work because all kids need structure, even though they’ll never say that.When they know that we expect them to behave better and that we are paying close attention, they can rise to the task.”