by Samantha Max
Gothamist
October 14, 2025

New York City’s juvenile detention centers are so overcrowded that about 100 young people have been sleeping in classrooms and common areas, according to a government document and attorneys who represent the young people.

… Jeffrey Butts, a research professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said it’s difficult to tell from the numbers alone what is driving the increase in youth in secure detention centers. He said a host of factors could contribute to the trend, including how police make arrests, the types of charges prosecutors file and how officials decide whether a young person should be detained in a secure detention center.

”What we never do is reflect back on ourselves to think, ‘Why are we having these problems and what do we do to prevent them from occurring in the future?’” Butts said. “Because politically it’s more gratifying to say, ‘Look what I did. I put these kids in a facility.’ And then [officials] turn around to the public and complain about resources and space, and they’re rarely held accountable for all the factors that led up to those decisions.”

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