NYC NOW - January 9, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office is investigating how the mayor is implementing his policy to limit shelter stays for migrants. Plus, more than a hundred organizations are urging Governor Kathy Hochul to approve funding for more overdose prevention centers. And finally, WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen and Jessy Edwards discuss overcrowding in both of New York City's juvenile detention facilities.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. In Manhattan, immigrant groups and city leaders are decrying Mayor Eric Adams' plan to force migrant families and their children out of shelters. The Adams administration is now limiting shelter stays to just 60 days. New York City Comptroller Brad Landers' office is investigating how, the mayor is implementing his policy to limit shelter states for migrants. We may not be able to prevent the cruelty of evicting pregnant women and families in the middle of wintertime, but we can at least demand the information for how the implementation of that

policy is taking place. Lander announced his probe Tuesday morning outside the Roe Hotel in Midtown, which serves as an emergency shelter for migrants. He says he wants the Adams administration to detail how much it's costing to transfer migrant families with nowhere to go to other shelters, or if they request tickets to leave the city. A city hall spokesperson says they've been in close contact with Landers' office, calling the inquiry, puzzling. More than 100 organizations are urging Governor Kathy Hokel to approve funding for more overdose prevention centers. WNYC's Caroline Lewis has more on a letter the group sent Hokel earlier this week. Advocates are accusing Governor Hockel of not taking the overdose crisis seriously.

Manhattan currently has two overdose prevention centers where people can use illicit drugs like fentanyl under medical supervision. The group that runs the centers estimates they've saved 1,300 people from overdoses so far. But Governor Hockel has rejected proposals to use money from legal settlements with pharmaceutical companies to fund more of these facilities. A letter from her administration last month said the money can't go towards programs that violate state or federal laws, but didn't elaborate on her office's legal analysis. Stay close. There's more after the break. The number of young New Yorkers admitted to the city's juvenile detention centers hit a six-year high in 2023, according to city data.

That has led to overcrowding in both the city's juvenile detention facilities. City officials have acknowledged the issue and have asked the state for help. For more, my colleague Tiffany Hansen talked with WMIC's Jesse Edwards. When we talk about jails, what do we mean when we talk about these youth jails? And also, what are the conditions like? So when we talk about youth jails, what we're really talking about is detention facilities. So think bedrooms rather than jail cells. They're run by the city's administration for children's services, more commonly known as the ACS.

I want to give you a little bit of important background. By law, every young person is meant to get their own bedroom and their own bed in these facilities. That's for safety. It's to prevent from young people being assaulted overnight or having their belongings stolen. But due to the overcrowding, the city has had to find other places to house these cities. teenagers. Since fall, teens have been sleeping in communal areas in the city-run jails. I'm talking classrooms, visiting areas. They sleep in makeshift beds on the ground alongside other teenagers, some of whom have been accused of more violent crimes than others. Lawyers say the teens report

being cold, they report being uncomfortable sleeping on these plastic pallet beds, and some are afraid to go to sleep. We also know that the group's sleeping arrangement has already led to some violent incidents. This week, city officials told me that there's been three altercations in the group settings overnight, and some teenagers have been left with bruises. I mentioned in the open there are two of these centers, right? So where are they? And describe for us the population at those centers? Yeah, so there are two centers. One is in the South Bronx, and the other one is in Brownsville in Brooklyn. Together, the jails hold about 200 young New Yorkers, their age between 12 and 21 years old. They've been charged with crimes. Most of them are awaiting trial. They haven't been

convicted yet. And the charges, they range from petty theft right through to murder. Over 90% of the young people held in these detention centers are black or Latino. When we're talking about the teenagers that are being housed in classrooms, those teens are aged between 14 and 17 years old. All right. We know the city has acknowledged this is an issue. So what are city officials saying? Yeah, so ACS officials acknowledge that the teenage detention rate has been steadily climbing. In the past two years, annual admissions to the city jails have almost doubled to more than 1,700. That's what's led to this overcrowding situation.

The city told me that it's been planning for months to build more beds to accommodate more teenagers, but there's no timeline set for that yet. That's why, last fall, the ACS. asked the state if it could bypass that single bedroom law and start housing teens in these communal areas, start housing them in classrooms. The state said yes, but it put a deadline on it. The deadline was January 5th. All right, so the deadline has passed. Where are we now? Yeah, so I reached out to the city and the state this week for an update. State officials told me they've agreed to extend the waiver. They will let the city continue housing teens in communal areas,

for another three months. That means teens will continue to sleep in classrooms and groups through April. We mentioned lawyers giving us some insight into how these teens are feeling. What are other advocates saying about this? Yeah, so the teens attorneys say they're appalled that the city and the state would let the facilities get this overcrowded. The head of Legal Aid's Juvenile Rights Unit told me she hopes this isn't going to be the start of a series of extensions to the waiver that see teenagers sleep. in classrooms all year. And advocates say the bigger problem is a lack of funding for alternatives to detention, things like at-home therapeutic programs that actually reduce the youth detention

rates. Also, last year, there were cuts to programs that aim to prevent teens from entering the criminal justice system in the first place. Advocates say that the city should be investing in these kinds of initiatives instead of building bigger youth jails. Overcrowding is at a six-year high. Why is it so high right now? Well, city officials say the spike is driven by an increase in youth arrests, as well as longer stays in the jail. They also point to the raised-age law, that 2018 law that sees 16 and 17-year-olds who are charged with crimes sent to youth jails instead of sending them to Rikers Island. Almost half of the people in youth detention right now are people who were jailed when they were 16 or 17, and they're still waiting for their trials years later. some of them are in their early 20s now.

That's WNYC's Jesse Edwards, talking with my colleague Tiffany Hanson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.