Jackie Gazdigian testifies on detention harm and alternatives

Good afternoon.

My name is Jackie Gazdigian.

I'm Senior Supervising Policy Counsel at Brooklyn Defender Services.

I want to thank the committee, Children and Youth, and Chair Stevens for the opportunity to address the council about youth incarceration policies.

And also thank you so much, Chair, for visiting Horizon a few weeks ago and viewing the conditions in person and speaking with the children who were there.

Incarceration, even in short stays in detention, is extraordinarily harmful for young people.

Research indicates that placing youth in locked detention centers pending their court dates leads to worse public safety and youth development outcomes and higher rates of recidivism.

This is because incarceration causes substantial long-term harm, including decreasing a young person's ability to succeed.

In order to decrease the population of incarcerated youth and break the cycle of re-arrest, it is imperative that we focus on alternatives to detention and keep young people in the community with their families, while providing them the supportive services they need.

We commend the Council and the Mayor for their commitment to significantly reducing the number of youth who are incarcerated in detention facilities.

These facilities are still extremely overcrowded, and the young people we represent, who we just spoke with their social workers, report sleeping on the floor in classrooms still, on benches and intake, and other common areas.

And given ACS's continued staffing and management challenges, the potential for harm in facilities must be front of mind as we focus on our efforts to minimize young people's entry into detention.

We are pleased to hear that.

that program spots at Families Rising and Exalt have been increased and there will be more opportunities for alternative to detention programming for ICM, which is intensive community monitoring.

If more spots for community-based ATD programming come online, more kids can be released from secure detention pretrial.

But the truth is that the longer a young person is detained pre-trial, the more likely that their case will be resolved with a sentence of incarceration.

And this is one of the reasons we support Intro 447, which will require the city to publish a guide on available diversion programs for young people facing detention.

Additionally, we support Resolution 274 and urge the Council to pass a resolution in support of the Youth Justice Innovation Fund, which would direct $50 million

of raise the age funding to community-based organizations to provide a continuum of services for youth age 12 through 25.

And I'll wrap up.

Lastly, one of the biggest drivers of youth incarceration is mandatory minimum sentencing.

And we all heard already from the DA's office in the Bronx.

We asked the council to support and pass a resolution urging the enactment of the Youth Justice and Opportunities Act, which would expand opportunities

for programs and other alternatives to incarceration and immediate record sealing for young people up to age 25 and give judges, not prosecutors, the discretion to decide what kids can get a program instead of going to jail.

We are grateful to the City Council for holding this important hearing today, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Council to reduce the number of youth who are incarcerated.

Thank you.