Juvenile Offender Problems Plague N.Y.
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York corrections data show 43 juvenile offenders were transferred to adult prisons last year, roughly double the number in any of the previous five years.
The agency that runs the youth detention centers declined to say whether the increase in transfers is related to 2010 security videos showing assaults at New York’s four juvenile prisons, which prompted an investigation by state Inspector General Ellen Biben.
Juvenile are offenders transfer automatically to adult prisons at age 21. That can happen earlier at OCFS request, though it requires court approval for those 16 and 17.
Adult prisons received 20 transfers from juvenile custody in 2009, according to the Department of Correctional Services. Of the 43 juvenile offenders received in 2010, prison data does not differentiate between admissions directly from OCFS and those released from juvenile custody and sent to serve their parole violation terms.
Eileen Carpenter, who recently retired from the state Commission of Correction, said she shot the videos last year while overseeing the four secure centers that house males, including murderers, rapists and armed robbers. The four facilities for boys are Brookwood and Goshen in the Hudson Valley, Industry in the Rochester area and MacCormick in the Southern Tier.
The commission, charged with ensuring New York prisons are safe, stable and humane, watched the videos in September after its staff investigated reports of unusual incidents at the facilities.
The dozen videos, now posted on YouTube, show a staff member and a resident punched and knocked out in separate assaults; two young people attacking a staff member; groups attacking individual young people; and other incidents where large groups refused to comply with orders. In most, juveniles grappled with staff and eventually were escorted away or wrestled down, subdued and in some instances handcuffed.
Staff from some centers said the situation worsened under the policies of Commissioner Gladys Carrion the past few years. They said residents no longer have to walk in lines with hands clasped behind their backs and instead flash gang signs, can skip school and programs without consequence, and that staff are perpetually worried that security videos are going to be used to accuse them of abuse.
Under Carrion’s policy to place more young people in community programs, more than a dozen group homes and detention centers have closed since 2007.
In his January State of the State address, Cuomo received a standing ovation when he criticized the state’s remaining juvenile detention system as ineffective, expensive and kept mainly to preserve upstate jobs.