New York: Close Spofford Campaign | CJNY Justice Spotlight

Video by Shadi Rahimi and Yoram Savion

United to Stop Spofford Campaign
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=323062228000

RALLY AT SPOFFORD MARCH 23, 2011 @4-6PM!

New York City currently operates three high security juvenile detention centers where children under the age of 16 are incarcerated. Locking up children in these facilities is expensive, harmful to their development, and actually makes it more likely they will re-offend. There are already community-based alternative to incarceration programs that better serve children without jeopardizing public safety. People who care about our children are calling on the city to Close Spofford for the following reasons:

Too many children are incarcerated: More than 5,000 children in New York City are admitted to detention every year. Many people thing that the city's youth jails are full or dangerous, violent offenders. In fact, only 8% of the children admitted to secure detention centers are youth charged as "juvenile offenders" and tried as adults. The vast majority of children admitted to secure have committed misdemeanor offenses and are charges as juvenile delinquents. Spofford is use to incarcerate way too many children who have committed only minor offenses and should not be in jail.

Jail is Too Expensive: New York City spends an unbelievable amount of money to lock up children. The cost of one bed for one night in Spofford is $620, which means that it costs more than 225,000 per year to lock up just one child. Experts agree that detaining children hurts their education development, harms family relationships, disrupts social and emotional development, and makes it more likely that they will be incarcerated in the future. Many young people describe Spofford as a dark and depressing place with a culture of hostility and aggression. Most of these children would have been better off had they never been incarcerated.

Children of color from poor communities are unfairly targeted: almost all of the children detained in New York City are children of color. More than 95 percent of the youth admitted to secure detention are children of color, and are mostly African-American and Latino children from the city's poorest neighborhoods. African - American children in NYC are 32 times as likely to be incarcerated and Latino children 18 times more likely to be incarcerated than white children.
Alternative programs work better: there are better alternative-to-detention programs operated by community-based organizations in every borough. These programs provide afterschool programming, curfew, checks, school attendance monitoring, counseling and other supervision to help make sure that children stay out of trouble. Children who are sent to these programs are half as likely to be re-arrested. If New York City made better use of these programs, it would not need to keep Spofford open.

Three secure detentions are too many: New York City should close Spofford because the city already has to newer secure detentions centers (horizon and crossroads) that each have 124 beds available, and can house children who absolutely need to be detained for public safety reasons. A third detention center is absolutely unnecessary as most of the youth detained are charged with low-level offenses and could be better that help children and youth. This spring, juvenile justice administrators and elected officials will have to make a decision whether to keep pouring money into costly, outdated, unnecessary juvenile served by alternative programs.

Closing Spofford would mean keeping an old promise: in the 1990s, New York City promised to close Spofford once the new juvenile detention centers were built .community residents were told the building would be turned into a community center of youth recreation facility. But six months after Spofford was closed the city reopened the building, renaming it bridges. It is time for New York City to keep its promises to the residents of the Bronx to close Spofford and invest in programs that actually help the community.

For these reasons, concerned citizens, community members, advocates and others who care about children are telling New York city to close Spofford and in to invest the savings in the community programs justice center, or invest in community-based alternatives to detention that are better, cheaper, and safer. Please add your voice to those who are demanding to CLOSE SPOFFORD once and for all.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• close spofford
• bridges
• new york
• juvenile justice
• nyc
• police
• brooklyn
• city
• jay
• protest
• shut
• down

[Liljoseisgay24]

@Blayzinchronic Thts wassup

[Monarch730]

any facility like this hardens you. Its no difference then Rikers. Its not so much the facility and building itself then the atmosphere and people inside it. First time minor offenders mixed in with guys whos been there 7 or 8 times. Just like in prison. You have a young man thats in there on a 1-3 year bid mixed in with older men whos in there for life. You cant do too much to change those kinda situations but to avoid them in the first place. Either that or take it as a lesson learned.

[Marwanisinthehouse]

dat shit wasnt dat bad wen i was in dere but it was called bridges not spofford no more

[scoobydew777]

I was in spoford in 1995 then got sentence to Ella McQueen and later sent to industry scool for boys! It was not fun but I did the crime and the time! Shut it down but figure out a way to keep the kids off the streets doin the stupid shit we all grew up doin!

[MrNAT123456789]

AND ALL MY OTHER SONS FROM HARLEM ND FROM HARLEM LENOX AVE^

[MrNAT123456789]

FREE MY SON JAMARL

[Blayzinchronic]

They got me locked in Spofford, the li'l juvenile criminal

Two kids approach to put blades to my throat

They like my coat and ask me what I'm gonna do for that

Give it up? Huh, you don't believe that

So I threw on my hood, pulled out the banger

Swung it at the kids, that put me in danger

They put away them blades and said

"Why it gotta be like that?"

'Cause you get a little ox, and don't know how to act