By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — The overhaul of New York’s youth jails will be difficult, but federal intervention may be avoided, according to local advocates and lawmakers who spoke at the conference on juvenile justice on Saturday.
The Department of Justice said almost a year ago that it would take control of New York's youth jails if conditions did not improve, citing egregious violations and cases of abuse.
However, local advocates and lawmakers are hopeful a drastic federal intervention can be avoided.
"There is a consensus that has emerged that we must transform our juvenile justice system — we are no longer debating that," said Gladys Carrión, commissioner of the state's Office of Children and Family Service at a conference hosted by the New York Society for Ethical Culture over the weekend.
The commissioner said incarcerating a youth in New York costs $240,000 per child annually, money that could be redirected to social services and family support programs for kids traditionally placed behind bars, Carrión said.
"For too long we have been incarcerating too many children," Carrión said.
A body of research shows youth prisons fail to rehabilitate troubled children, many of whom are raised in poverty, lack education and community support, she added.
The disparity is large, the commissioner said.
Most kids in the state's juvenile justice system are black or Latino and from New York City.
Of the children in the system, 65 percent have a learning disorder and most of the young teens read at a third grade level, she added.
Brooklyn state senator and chair of the children and families committee Velmanette Montgomery, who was a panelist at "Justice for Juveniles: a call to Ethical Action" sponsored legislation to give counties "the fiscal support to divert youth from detention and incarceration settlings into community-based alternatives."
Municipalities currently receive subsidy incentives to jail children instead.
Meanwhile, privately funded programs around the city stretch resources to arrange "alternative" placements with criminal court judges.
Advocates believe reducing the population of state youth correction facilities while funding and promoting alternative to incarceration programs will begin to fix the failing system.
"While we talk philosophically, we have to also work politically," Montgomery said, stressing the need for legislative change on a state level.
In alternative to incarceration programs, kids agree to attend school and after school sessions, complete community service and stay out of trouble.
Program mentors help them get back into school if necessary. They also intervene when progress is hindered by dangerous or unstable family situations.
Panelists Saturday included Judge Michael Corriero, who is credited with helping establish the youth parts of the city's Supreme Courts, and Susan Taylor, activist and former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine.
Taylor said stressed that suburban communities are much more lenient with treatment of juveniles charged with crimes.
Disadvantaged youths in New York City, many of who are from Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn have never benefited from the justice system "we use for the white kids in Long Island," Taylor added.
"We need to impose that system for inner city kids living in poverty," she said.
