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Classrooms serve as cells at NYC’s troubled juvenile detention centers
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CLASSROOMS SERVE AS CELLS AT NYC’S TROUBLED JUVENILE DETENTION CENTERS



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By
Bahar Ostadan

Published Jun 14, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.

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Bahar Ostadan/Gothamist

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By
Bahar Ostadan

Published Jun 14, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.

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Classrooms in the city’s juvenile detention centers are being used as cells
nearly every day while staff struggle to curb a spike in violent attacks,
employees say.

Violence between detainees is so prevalent that employees say they have no
choice but to lock the kids in classrooms with a staffer – often into the early
morning, where they sometimes sleep on chairs lined in a row. Nine current and
former staffers, educators and former detainees who spoke to Gothamist all
described the same practice.

The repurposing of classrooms to maintain security, which was confirmed by an
Administration of Children’s Services spokesperson, is one of many factors
fueling educational failures in juvenile detention, the sources said.

“If there’s a situation, maybe a fight or issue, [classrooms] are used sometimes
to separate the residents,” said Antonio Staten, a former Crossroads Juvenile
Detention Center employee.

Gothamist obtained a photo of a young detainee at one of the city's detention
centers, who was hunched over in a school chair with a sheet over his head.



A detainee in juvenile detention sleeps inside a classroom with a sheet over his
head.

Obtained by Gothamist


A staffer at one of the detention centers described kids being confined to
classrooms as a security measure every day “from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. with at
most a sheet and a box of cards if they are lucky enough.”

The staffer, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to
speak to the press, said he was once assigned to sit in a classroom with a kid
who was separated from other detainees to avoid an attack from 3 p.m. to
midnight without a meal or bathroom break.

“I began to feel as if I was locked up, as well,” the staffer said.

Roughly 200 New Yorkers between the ages of 12 and 21 are jailed at two juvenile
facilities, run by ACS, while they await sentencing: Crossroads in Brownsville,
Brooklyn and Horizon Juvenile Detention Center in the South Bronx. In total,
there are roughly 20 classrooms at both detention centers, according to sources.

ACS did not respond to questions about when the agency started using classrooms
to detain kids. But an educator at Crossroads said the practice began this
school year.

“This is something that we’ve never really had before,” the educator said.
“Being displaced from your family and your community and then having to sleep in
a classroom … it just kills me.”



“You can’t have someone who wants to hurt you or kill you screaming at you all
day.”

Stephanie Gendell, a spokesperson for ACS, said classrooms are just one of the
spaces in the juvenile detention centers that might be used to separate a
detainee from others.

The staffers assigned to sit with kids held in the classrooms are “youth
development specialists,” who provide “safe and secure supervision” while also
serving as role models and mentors, according to a job listing.

The kids “get absolutely nothing productive” on the days they’re held in
classrooms, another Brooklyn staffer said, noting that the detainees themselves
do not attend school on those days.

The classrooms are part of a school inside the city’s two juvenile detention
centers called Passages Academy, which is operated by the Department of
Education. The classrooms provide “instruction according to grade level in all
major middle and high school subjects,” according to ACS. But sources say many
teens and young adults refuse to attend class each day, and instead receive
packets of homework to complete on their own time.



An empty classroom inside a juvenile detention center.

Obtained by Gothamist


Sources said those who do show up to class are divided by gang affiliation – not
grade level.

“Students participating in these programs comprise our most vulnerable
population of students, and they deserve every opportunity for compassion and
support,” said Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the education department.

A former detainee at the Brownsville detention center who did not wish to be
named for privacy reasons recalled being thrown into a classroom to avoid a
fight.

“It’s just a waiting game to avoid altercations,” he said. “But it never really
made a difference.”

ACS took over Horizon from the Correction Department in 2019 after New York
banned the practice of detaining 16- and 17-year-olds in adult jails. Last year,
violent attacks with blades and metal shanks resulting in “serious injuries”
doubled at the Horizon Juvenile Detention Center in the South Bronx, according
to a federal monitor report released in April.

The report said 90 employees at Horizon resigned last year, and that 38% of the
staffers on the payroll were out on sick leave — often due to work-related
injuries.



The monitor does not oversee the city’s second juvenile detention center in
Brownsville, Crossroads.

The daily population at both facilities is the highest it's been in a decade: An
average of 103 people are detained each day at Crossroads; an average of 91
people at Horizon, according to Gendell. That’s up 42% and 17%, respectively,
from 2013.

Gothamist previously reported on current and former employees who say a network
of corrupt staffers smuggle in drugs, cash, cellphones and scalpels.

“Some fights would take place at school or in the hallways,” the former detainee
said. “Either the [staff] wouldn’t have a fast enough reaction or maybe they
just wanted to see how the fight would go.”



Tagged

juvenile detention
brooklyn
bronx

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Bahar Ostadan
Twitter

Bahar Ostadan is a reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the city's
powerful institutions and the work they do (or don't do) for New Yorkers. Got a
tip? Email bostadan@nypublicradio.org or reach Bahar on Signal at 646-740-7335.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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