'Raise the Age' soft-on-crime law filled 'ill-prepared' New York juvenile detention centers with hardened criminals: report

New York's “Raise the Age” mitigating crime law has flooded the Big Apple's two understaffed juvenile detention centers with older, hardened criminals – including accused murderers, a damning new report has found.

The number of murder suspects held in residential facilities for misbehaving youths has more than quadrupled since the state law was passed in 2017 – leading to nearly a dozen violent outbursts involving both staff and inmates, according to the city's Bureau of Investigation sent to hospital.

The measure and a bail reform package passed by the state legislature the following year “fundamentally altered the juvenile detention population” and rendered additional disciplinary approaches “insufficient to prevent misconduct,” according to the 75-page DOI report released Thursday.

According to the report, the resident population of the two juvenile facilities — Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx and Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn — increased from 52 in April 2018 to 237 in May 2023.

And the number of people charged with murder rose from just seven to more than 230 during the same period, investigators found.

Interviews with hundreds of current and former employees of the city's child care agency, which oversees the two juvenile detention centers, revealed that staff are overstretched and have dealt with nearly a dozen outbreaks of shocking violence, including riots in which workers were sent to the emergency room, according to reports it in the report.

“These challenging circumstances require ACS to strengthen its behavior management tools to better track and respond to violent and criminal behavior,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement.

The report sparked outrage among state and city politicians and police, who were also grappling with the impact of controversial criminal justice reforms.

“It’s all a shell game,” grumbled a Brooklyn detective. “In 2018, the people in juvenile facilities would have been in Rikers today. So essentially the facilities have become satellites for Rikers.”

A law enforcement source said the law “has significantly damaged the fabric of our city.”

“The reforms were based on an ideology with minimal input from law enforcement experts,” the source said. “The results are simple: juvenile crime increases with the number of young victims. This, along with bail reform, has emboldened criminals, harmed our youth and made New York less safe.”

Albany's Raise the Age initiative was part of sweeping criminal justice reforms pushed through the state's Democratic-dominated Legislature that critics say have led to a rise in crime in the Empire State.

The law, implemented in two phases in 2017 and 2018, raised the age of criminal responsibility in the state to 18 and allowed defendants to remain in juvenile detention centers as young as 21.

Previously, suspects aged 16 or over could automatically be tried in adult criminal court.

Following Raise the Age, state legislatures also passed measures that prohibited judges from setting bail in almost all criminal cases except the most serious crimes. Despite several tweaks pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, most crimes remain ineligible for bail.

“We have said all along that Raise the Age would be nothing more than a gang recruitment act,” said state Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), who voted against the law and bail reform as a state representative.

“It reduced sentences, sealed records and eliminated consequences for juveniles who commit crimes,” she said. “Now we are seeing an increase in crime and the placement of violent offenders with juvenile offenders.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Hudson Valley), who pushed for cashless legislation in Congress and railed against Raise the Age, said: “Democrats in Albany haven’t the slightest idea what they’re doing when “That’s what it’s all about.” Keeping New Yorkers safe.

“Raise the Age and Cashless Bail have increased the risk of New Yorkers being harmed by violent repeat offenders and, according to a NYC DOI report, have even put detention center staff at risk,” he said.

At Horizon and Crossroads, the standard behavioral management process STRIVE — safety, teamwork, respect, integrity, values ​​and commitment — quickly proved inadequate to deal with the older and more violent residents, according to the DOI report.

The already understaffed youth facilities were suddenly faced with an influx of violent residents, forcing more and more people to work overtime to fill slots or cover for injured colleagues, investigators found.

The new realities led to several outbreaks of violence, including on Sept. 8, 2022, when eight residents took over a multi-purpose room at Crossroads and attacked staff, the report said.

In another incident on January 24, 2022, eight Horizon residents were arrested following a disturbance at the facility in which a suspect produced a shank and threatened staff. Sixteen employees were involved in trying to put down the riot, but ultimately had to call in the NYPD.

On April 12, 2020, Crossroads residents described in the report as “crazy” set off fire sprinklers and overbearing staff members who were held at bay for three hours before police were called.

Workers at Crossroads and Horizons seized razors, rocks, metal clubs, metal screws and “a sock with a makeshift shaft” as well as marijuana in other incidents, the report said.

The DOI said it made 15 recommendations to ACS, six of which were rejected, while nine were either accepted or had already been implemented by the child welfare agency.

In an email Thursday, an ACS spokesperson said the agency has addressed many of the issues cited — particularly since May 2023, the most recent statistic cited in the DOI report.

Between May 2023 and March of this year, the average daily population at the two facilities increased by 30%, but the rate of violence among youth fell by 35%, the spokesman said. Headcount levels have increased and the number of workers' compensation claims from workers has declined sharply.

A follow-up report found that by June of this year, ACS had made “significant progress” at youth sites and that “facility safety and stability continued to benefit from the vision and approach of current ACS facility leaders.”

“While serving older youth charged with more serious crimes presents additional challenges, ACS has achieved compelling reductions in the incidence of youth violence,” the agency said in a statement.

“Violence has decreased, supportive programs have increased significantly, restorative work with youth is making a difference, and we are seeing improved educational outcomes for youth in custody, including increased high school graduation rates.”

Meanwhile, the New York City Council is entering the fray, passing a law Wednesday that would require more public data on the consequences and demographics of juvenile crime and the juvenile justice system.

“Our juvenile detention centers are becoming training grounds for young criminals,” Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said Thursday. “When offenders are admitted to juvenile facilities, they are now surrounded almost exclusively by hardened, dangerous criminals.”

Kevin O'Connor, a former NYPD deputy commissioner of juvenile services who retired in January 2023, called on the city to establish separate facilities to house older juvenile offenders and do more to prevent recidivism.

“They don’t even detain kids for robbery or gun possession,” he told the Post. “There is literally no room in the inn.

“I don’t want to see children go to prison, but what do you do with a child who has been arrested 17 times in nine months? “They need to restrain him so he doesn't continue to become a victim,” O'Connor said.

— Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Larry Celona