Press Statement

New York Must Free Incarcerated Children, Not Risk Their Lives During the COVID-19 Epidemic

NEW YORK – Yesterday, a positive COVID-19 test was reported in the Horizon Juvenile Detention Center in the Bronx and three staff who work in NYC youth detention facilities also tested positive for COVID-19. In response, Center for Community Alternatives put out the following statement, attributable to Katie Schaffer, Director of Advocacy:

“Last week, New York City made the sound decision to close all public schools to reduce the dangerous spread of COVID-19. However, vulnerable children incarcerated in New York City’s juvenile detention facilities have been left behind bars.

The incarceration of children has always been unconscionable. In a pandemic, it is deadly. To protect children entangled in the criminal legal system, New York City must:

• Release young people to their families, prioritizing the immediate release of immunocompromised and medically vulnerable young people.
• Cease new admissions to these youth jails and instead fund community-based organizations to provide services and supports to divert children from incarceration.
• Curtail all interactions between young people and police, courts, and probation to the greatest extent possible.
• For any children who remain incarcerated, provide a public plan to ensure ongoing connection to families and loved ones and guarantee access to remote schooling.
• For any young person who falls sick, ensure treatment is in a hospital and prohibit subjecting at-risk or sick children to the torture of solitary confinement.
• Select an independent agency to provide oversight and protocols for screening, testing, sanitizing and monitoring of conditions in the facilities for the duration of the epidemic.

Our young people deserve better than being abandoned behind bars.”