Chair Stevens Questions ACS on Secure Detention Census

Thank you, Councilmember.

I'm just thank you for being here.

And I I, as I'm like with listening to your testimony and going through some of the things, one of the things that probably to me is is very glaring as of May 13th, 2020 6, that we have 362 young people in secure detention.

This is like really alarming for me.

And so I think for me, my my question is, and and this is why I say it's so important for us to invest in our young people on the front end, because now we have 362 young people in secure detention.

And that's a huge alarming number for me.

So I I want to ask, and specifically, is there some type of interagency um task force or working group that's going on now to think about how do we reduce these numbers?

Because at this point, I've I've been screaming at the top of my lungs for the last two years about this, and I know everyone is up in arms about child care, but I want us to be just as up in arms about 362 young people being in secure detention.

This is alarming and honestly unacceptable to me.

So I would love to hear is there a plan and as we're going through this budget exercise and thinking about you know where savings are, are we thinking about how to get these young people from not ending up here?

Um, and what would that look like?

Thank you, Chair Stevens.

Um, just to note that we absolutely share the value of and the importance of our young people in their development and their well-being, and um absolutely crucial in um focusing on um what we're doing, both from a prevention of foster care um involvement to also um uh uh prevention of involvement in the juvenile juvenile system.

I'll turn it over to Deputy Commissioner Ginsburg to give some more specific details.

Good morning.

Thank you for your question.

As you know, we share your concerns.

I know.

But it's just frustrating because you guys get them at the end, and so that's why I said is there like an interagency conversation on like how we're gonna reduce these numbers?

Because you can't do this on your own, right?

Like, would like how are we working with DOE and DYCD and all these agencies that work with young people to get this number down because honestly, when we came in, we were at I believe it was like 150, and no one is talking about these numbers constantly increasing, and it's really driving me crazy.

And so if we aren't doing that, I want to just stay on record that that is something that I need and want to see really quick soon.

So the good news is is that since the change of administration, we have been actively in conversation with Mock J.

We are speaking with DYCD.

We have always been speaking with DYCD.

As you are aware, DYCD funds many of our programs in the facilities and also funds programs in the communities.

So when young people leave us, they can continue with some of that programming as supports in the communities in order to prevent them from coming back to the city.

Oh, I know we're seeing them later at one, so they'll be getting the same question.

Um that's why I have you guys all here because I want us to make sure we're looking at this in a holistic perspective, because this is a this is a huge concern of mine.

So um definitely want us to keep talking and thinking about how are we looking and being intentional about getting these numbers down because this to me is unacceptable.