Close Spofford Juvenile Detention Center

To:  Juvenile Justice Administrators & Elected Officials

New York City has too many juvenile jails where children under the age of 16 are locked up while their cases are being decided. NYC currently operates 3 secure juvenile detention centers, where it costs $588 per day, or $215,000 per year to confine just one child. One of these centers - the Spofford Juvenile Detention Center - was never meant to remain open when NYC built two new juvenile detention centers in 1998. When these two new centers opened, Spofford was temporarily closed. Six months later, however, Spofford was re-opened to accomodate a spike in juvenile arrests, this time re-named Bridges. Today, the vast majority of children admitted to secure detention are NOT serious offenders - only 10% are charged with serious felonies. The city has now invested in a number of community-based alternatives to detention that provide supervision and monitoring for children back in the community. Yet even with these programs, and a scientifically validated risk assessment instrument to determine risk level, too many children are being sent to detention who present little to no risk to public safety. At present two thirds of the children sent to detention by the Family Court score as low or medium risk for re-arrest of failure to appear in court. Given these facts, it is unconscionable for NYC to maintain 3 secure detention centers when safer, cheaper and better alternatives exist. Therefore, we support the closing of the Spofford (Bridges) Juvenile Detention Center.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Close Spofford Juvenile Detention Center Petition to Juvenile Justice Administrators & Elected Officials was created by and written by Ruben Austria (ruben.austria@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.