Restler thanks Chair Stevens for tours and warns population doubled
Councilmember Lincoln Restler thanks Chair Stevens for arranging council tours of Horizon and Crossroads. He says the secure detention population more than doubled from about 140 under Eric Adams to approximately 360, and criticizes cuts to prevention and ATI programs.
Thank you, Chair Stevens.
I just want to take a moment to thank the chair who
you know, everybody says is like the biggest and best fighter for our young people, which is true.
But she did something special in advance of this hearing, which is that she invited many of us in the council to come on tours of Horizons and Crossroads.
So almost everybody who's up here today
over the last four or five weeks has spent time in Horizons, in Crossroads, and seen for ourselves just how troubling the situation is.
And so I really want to thank you for your leadership on this issue because it is an urgent one.
You know, when the population of children in secure detention, the population of children in secure detention has more than doubled over the past five years.
It was just about 140 when Eric Adams came into office.
Today, I don't know, we'll get the testimony from ACS, but we're approximately at 360.
Instead of investing in preventative programs,
like Next Steps and ATI programs that were eliminated, Eric Adams and his team chose to cut these programs and build more and more beds for kids in jail.
This is the wrong approach.