Objective

To determine whether the New York City Administration for Children’s Services adequately operates Horizon and Crossroads Juvenile Detention Centers for court-placed youth to ensure they meet federal, State, and City standards and regulations for the health and safety of youth and staff and provide youth with required services. The audit covered the period from October 2018 through December 2023.

About the Program

Through its Division of Youth and Family Justice, the New York City (NYC) Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) is charged with protecting and promoting the safety and well-being of New York City’s children and families, including youth within the juvenile justice system. To this end, ACS provides medical, mental health, and case management services; access to education and other programs; and a safe environment for youth detained at its two secure and specialized secure detention facilities—Horizon Juvenile Detention Center (Horizon) and Crossroads Juvenile Detention Center (Crossroads), located in the Bronx and Brooklyn, respectively. New York City Public Schools (NYCPS, formerly NYC Department of Education) administers a full-time educational program at both centers through its Passages Academy. A range of vendors are contracted to provide services and programs, including health, mental health, arts, recreation, music, and vocational services; and community engagement for youth.

The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) is responsible for the certification, oversight, and monitoring of the State’s juvenile detention centers. OCFS has certified Horizon and Crossroads to house youth at the two facilities. OCFS detention specialists conduct periodic inspections of the two detention facilities and issue recommendations to ACS management. ACS uses the Juvenile Detention Automated System (JDAS) to record and track youth admissions to and releases from detention facilities as well as to report incidents to OCFS. JDAS is used by juvenile detention facilities across the State.

On April 10, 2017, the State enacted the Raise the Age (RTA) Law, which changed the age that a juvenile can be prosecuted as an adult in criminal cases from 16 to 18. Before RTA, individuals in NYC charged with a crime who were 16 and 17 were treated as adults and detained at the NYC Department of Correction’s Rikers Island.

Between October 1, 2018 and March 31, 2023, ACS data shows 3,643 youth were admitted to the two facilities—3,234 to Crossroads and 409 to Horizon. An analysis of NYC Police Department data for the 4 calendar years 2021–2024 indicates that the number of people under 18 accused of major crimes—including murders, robberies, and assaults—increased sharply in NYC. These individuals are generally detained at Horizon and Crossroads until their cases are fully adjudicated.

Key Findings

We found numerous weaknesses in ACS’ administration/operation of the two juvenile facilities that resulted from administrators’ failure to ensure compliance with applicable standards and regulations, including:

• Insufficient monitoring of intake, housing, and case management services, which are critical to ensure youth undergo a successful transition to the facility as well as to determine if they are properly evaluated and are prepared to re-enter their communities when discharged.
  • ACS did not adequately ensure that all intake and case management services were completed in a timely manner.
    • Only 53% of the youth sampled received an initial intake interview within 24 hours, as required. One youth did not receive an interview until 76 days after being admitted to the facility.
  • Some assessments were not completed, required services were not always provided in a timely manner, case managers did not always meet with youth per the required daily and weekly schedules, and records related to provision of services were incomplete or missing.
    • 94% of the youth sampled did not receive all their daily face-to-face meetings with their case manager, as required.
• Under-reporting of incidents to OCFS:
  • According to OCFS Juvenile Detention Facilities Regulations, critical and non-critical events are defined by and should be reported to OCFS. However, ACS did not report all incidents it recorded in its own incident reporting database (Group Oriented Analysis Leadership Strategies [GOALS]) to OCFS through JDAS. As a result, there was a discrepancy in the reporting by ACS to OCFS. In fact, we found that 37% of 9,693 unique incidents at the two detention facilities were not reported to OCFS through JDAS.
• Incidents not reported timely:
  • One incident involved a youth setting a garbage can on fire. However, the incident was not reported until 24 hours later. This type of incident is required to be reported immediately.
  • 14 incidents including sexual abuse, assault, harassment, employee misconduct, and contraband were required to be reported within 24 hours—but were reported from 1 to 22 days late. For example, youth housed at Crossroads attempted to escape from the facility on May 26, 2020. However, it was not reported until May 28, 2020—2 days later.
• Insufficient prevention of contraband entering facilities:
  • Contraband entering facilities is the second highest reported incident category and increased over the scope of our audit period, indicating that procedures for the prevention of contraband are insufficient or are being insufficiently monitored. The number of reported contraband incidents increased from 62 in 2019 to 706 in 2023—over a 1,038% increase. Weaknesses in enforcement of ACS policies may have contributed to the growth of this problem. For instance, cell phones are considered contraband. Despite an ACS policy prohibiting employees from bringing their personal cell phones into the facilities, we observed an ACS official who went through the security scanner at Horizon with two cell phones. Although the cell phones were visible to security officials, she was not told to take them back to her locker as others are told to do.
• Inadequate oversight of school attendance:
  • Both facilities exhibited chronic absenteeism levels across all educational programs and ages, ranging from 13-73% days absent. While certain absences are excused, such as for court appearances or off-site medical appointments, classes are provided on site and ACS staff are responsible for accompanying students to class.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure ACS policies for intake, housing, and case management are communicated to staff, and establish monitoring functions to ensure compliance with the policies.
• Ensure all incidents in GOALS are reported to OCFS through JDAS. Monitor the timeliness and accuracy of incident reporting to OCFS.
• Establish monitoring procedures and conduct periodic reviews to ensure that all incidents are entered into JDAS timely and accurately.
• Evaluate and strengthen, as necessary, policies and practices for the prevention and detection of contraband.
• Work with NYCPS, OCFS, and other stakeholders to minimize youth absenteeism from school.