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NYC announces plans to ease crowding at violence-plagued juvenile detention centers
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 15, 2026
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Bahar Ostadan/Gothamist
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 15, 2026
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New York City is taking steps to reduce the number of teens in juvenile detention following years of overcrowding.
The plan, which will be formally unveiled on Tuesday, includes increasing access to community-based programs to reduce the number of young people at Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brownsville and Horizon Juvenile Center in the South Bronx, the mayor’s office told Gothamist.
The administration is boosting funding for organizations that support 14- to 20-year-olds involved in the court system, including helping them to get back into school and find jobs. Funding for therapy programs that address issues like substance use, family conflict and truancy is being increased as well.
The changes follow some prodding by the state. In July, the New York Office of Children and Family Services quietly declined to extend a waiver that for years has allowed the city to circumvent a state law that requires every teen in secure detention to have their own bedroom. Gothamist has reported on teens sleeping in classrooms, hallways and other common spaces amid a surge in youth detention since at least June 2023.
Rebecca Jones Gaston, who was appointed ACS commissioner in April, said in a statement that the agency is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all youth and staff. She said the agency plans to renovate its existing facilities, improve security measures, hire more staff and increase opportunities for education and job training.
“The ultimate goal is to provide trauma-informed supports and opportunities to help young people make different choices in order to thrive regardless of what's next in their lives,” Gaston said.
Crossroads and Horizon, the city’s two secure juvenile detention facilities, have long been plagued by overcrowding. The average daily combined population at the facilities increased from about 160 young people in 2022 to more than 300 last year, according to data from the Administration for Children’s Services.
By June of this year, the average daily population had risen even further, to 374 teens, the latest data from the agency shows. The two facilities are supposed to house no more than a combined 259 people.
As part of the new plan, the Department of Probation is launching a community monitoring program that will supervise and support young people living at home while their cases are pending in court. Court officials will also meet regularly with city officials to address delays in the legal system and get cases resolved more quickly, the mayor’s office said.
For teens who remain in detention, City Hall said some who demonstrate good behavior and get permission from a judge can move to other, less secure facilities. The city is also expanding programming for those still at Crossroads and Horizon and expediting updates to the buildings.
Lisa Freeman, an attorney-in-charge at the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, said officials should have acted sooner to address what she described as “inhumane” conditions in the juvenile detention centers.
“ It's not a way for a system to function, and it's been more than three years this has been going on,” she said. “It's just way past time for it to change.”
Dawne Mitchell, chief attorney of the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, said in a statement that the new plan from the mayor’s office “is an important and welcome step forward on reforms we have long advocated for.”
“The Legal Aid Society will not rest until every young person has meaningful access to alternatives to detention, and those in custody are treated with dignity and held in safe, humane conditions,” she said.
‘A child needs a safe space’
Crossroads and Horizon house teens accused of serious crimes. For about three years, some teens at the facilities have been forced to sleep in classrooms or other shared spaces, sometimes in shallow plastic tubs with a mattress inside rather than in typical beds.
Freeman with the Legal Aid Society said these young people don’t have their own bedroom or a safe space to store their belongings. The common areas where they sleep often don’t have bathrooms, she said, so the teens sometimes have to urinate in bottles or trash cans. She also said it’s difficult for them to go to class or other programming, because they spend much of the day being escorted around the building.
Legal Aid’s young clients are often stuck in this itinerant status for months at a time, Freeman said.
“ A child needs a safe space that they can retreat to,” she said. “When you're not giving them that opportunity, you're really amping up the stress for everybody in the facility.”
ACS reported 185 youth-on-youth assaults and altercations in its secure detention facilities between April and June of this year, compared to 128 during the same period in 2025, according to the city’s latest available data.
An ACS spokesperson said changing violence rates reflect changes in population at the juvenile detention centers. In the Mayor’s Management Report, published in March, the agency said it is using “enhanced behavior management,” strengthening security practices and expanding clinical services to support “a growing and increasingly complex youth population in detention.”
In response to questions from Gothamist, ACS said teens who don’t have their own room get a plastic bin to store their belongings and have access to programming. The agency also said it added another bathroom at Horizon and is planning to do the same at Crossroads.
ACS data shows the number of young people entering juvenile detention has started to go down in the last year. But the average daily population is still trending upward, because teens are typically spending a longer time in detention, according to the latest Mayor’s Management Report. ACS said the longer stays reflect a growing share of detained teens “with complex or serious cases.”
Freeman said various factors can contribute to the amount of time young people spend at Crossroads or Horizon, including lengthy plea bargain negotiations in court and a lack of access to community-based programs that support teens charged with crimes.
“ We should be treating kids in a rehabilitative fashion so that we can help them move forward to a productive life,” she said.
Tagged
new york city
public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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