More Data Sought On Jailed Kids
By Jessica Ablamsky
About a year and a half ago, three corrections officers at Rikers Island were charged with turning a teenage wing of the jail into a fight club they called "The Program," where inmates who took part were allowed to extort commissary money, and other privileges, from other inmates.The abuse came to light after they beat to death 18-year-old Christopher Robinson - incarcerated for a minor parole violation, missing curfew - while guards allegedly stood by and did nothing.
The incident prompted legislation, recently passed by City Council, which is the first step towards fixing a broken juvenile justice system, said Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), a member of the Committee on Juvenile Justice.
"We've received a lot of complaints about violence in some of these juvenile detention facilities," said Dromm. "We don't have the data to understand what's going on."
The DJJ each year admits about 5,500 youths ages 7-15 into three secure and 16 non-secure detention facilities in the city. All teenagers in the city ages 16 and up are charged as adults. In 2009, about 850 were admitted to Rikers.
Though the Department of Juvenile Justice, now under the auspices of the Administration for Children's Services, publishes some data about detained youth, the information is of limited use and not legally mandated, according to a report from the City Council Committee on Juvenile Justice.
To promote transparency and prevent abuse, the DJJ must now post on its Web site every year a report regarding the age, gender, race and zip code of residence of youth in the city's detention facilities.
Also required are quarterly reports on the use of physical and mechanical restraints by department staff on children, injuries to children from restraints, fights between children, injuries to children as a result of those fights, injuries to children from any means not previously mentioned, the number of room confinements and the length of each stay.
A yearly report must indicate the number of allegations made during the year that a child in a department detention facility was abused or neglected, and the number of substantiated findings during the year of abuse or neglect.
In 2009, there were 201 allegations of abuse or neglect, according to the Mayor's Management Report. A "significant proportion" resulted from staff intervening in aggressive youth behavior. In the same year, 1 in 3 children were in a fight that resulted in an injury.
In 2010, there were 10 substantiated allegations of abuse or neglect in four months. Incidents do not necessarily occur within the reporting timeframe.
"When you take children away from their families and put them under the purview of the state, you want to really know what is happening with them," said Mike Schweinsburg, a spokesman for Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez (D-Brooklyn), head of the juvenile justice committee.
To track where racial disparities start, advocates would like to see demographic data reported at each step of the judicial system.
"DJJ reports that about 97 percent or more of youth in custody are African-American and Latino," said Charisa Smith, of the New York City Task Force on Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System. "This is really a crisis."
Some City Council members, particularly the Committee on Juvenile Justice, would like to move away from a detention model.
"We should be keeping kids in their neighborhood, with their families, but with support services to keep them on a straight and narrow path," Dromm said.
Reach Reporter Jessica Ablamsky at jablamsky@queenstribune.com, or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 124.