A New York state oversight agency has barred the city’s Administration of Children’s Services from allowing detainees in their juvenile jails to sleep in the same room or common areas after local officials made little headway in addressing poor housing conditions, the state department head told the Daily News.
On Tuesday, a City Council hearing revealed that the state’s Office of Children and Family Services over the summer declined to extend a long-standing waiver that exempted ACS from a state requirement that all youth receive their own bedrooms.
The waiver, which ACS received in 2023, allowed the agency to place multiple juvenile detainees to sleep in hallways, classrooms and chapels, potentially restricting access to educational and other programming.
ACS operates two detention facilities: Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx, and Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brooklyn. There are more than 100 detainees beyond the authorized beds across both sites.
“We hadn’t seen movement to the extent that we would have liked,” the state agency’s commissioner, DaMia Harris-Madden told The News in an interview Wednesday. “We are here to support ACS. Since then, we’ve seen, I think, movement.”
Once the waiver was denied — and ACS was forced to comply with the state housing rules — the number of detainees at Horizon and Crossroads dropped, officials said.
The average daily population was 361 juvenile detainees between January and July this year, a recent ACS report showed. After the state declined to extend the city’s waiver, the census dropped to 352 as of Oct. 23, according to internal data shared at the Council hearing.
Jefferson Siegel/for New York Daily News
The City of New York Administration for Children’s Services. (Jefferson Siegel for New York Daily News)
Harris-Madden said her agency has helped ACS by taking in more young people into the state-operated juvenile justice system and meeting with family court judges about alternatives to detention for lower-level offenses.
“Maybe we can find alternatives. We should be looking at alternatives,” the commissioner said during the Wednesday visit to HeartShare St. Vincent’s Services, a Brooklyn-based foster care agency.
“I think New York City does a really good job at trying to prevent young people from coming in,” she added. “From COVID, there’s just been such a backlog. And so it’s trying to clear (the backlog).”
The state waiver dated back to Oct. 2023 and expired in July.
Oregon Dept. of Human Services
ACS Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston. (Oregon Dept. of Human Services)
During the Council hearing, Councilwoman Althea Stevens (D-Bronx), chairwoman of the children and youth committee, pressed: “Is this not a crisis that we have so many young people in young detention? The waiver from the state is removed, so kids aren’t allowed to sleep in unconventional areas anymore.”
ACS Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston said the situation was “absolutely is a crisis” and cited a “variety of things that we are putting in place and investing in across the continuum.”
Mayor Mamdani’s administration recently announced new investments in the city’s juvenile justice system to reduce the number of young people in custody, and improve conditions for those who remain in detention.
“I want to be clear,” Stevens added later in the hearing. “I’ve been speaking with the OCFS Commissioner. She also feels like it’s a crisis, which is why the waiver was removed. Because she’s like, nothing is being done. Because no one is addressing this crisis.”
The city’s juvenile detention census has surged since state reforms raised the age at which a child can be prosecuted as an adult and brought more young people into the juvenile justice system, including those facing more severe charges and longer stays.
Between 2023 and 2025, the average daily population jumped from 225 to 304 youth detainees, according to ACS data.
Pressure to address the conditions in the juvenile jails intensified this summer after a June 21 violent clash at Horizon in Mott Haven between the detainees and staff, in which 11 were stabbed and 15 hospitalized, according to a Council report.
In a statement released on Friday, Jones Gaston said ACS is committed to supporting youth in detention and working toward safely lowering the census. The agency is in the process of building an annex at Horizon, which is expected to open next year.
“We will continue our work to improve the conditions of care, including by renovating our existing facilities, enhancing security measures, onboarding additional staff members, developing updated staff training, and increasing youth educational opportunities, as well as investing in youth workforce development and training programs,” read the statement.
“The ultimate goal is to provide trauma-informed supports and opportunities to help young people make different choices,” the statement read.