Some Rikers Teens Could be Moved to Bronx Detention Center

The city is moving forward with plans to transfer 16-and 17-year-old inmates off Rikers Island and into a juvenile detention center in the Bronx.

The facility, known as Horizon, currently holds younger adolescents considered juvenile delinquents by the family court system. The plan would move those younger teens into a juvenile facility in Brooklyn. Both detention centers would need to be renovated at a cost of roughly $300 million.

The move comes nearly two years after an investigation by federal prosecutors revealed a violent, chaotic atmosphere where guards regularly used excessive force on adolescents in jail at Rikers Island. A subsequent settlement agreement strongly recommended young inmates be moved to another location. 

"We think it's a real opportunity to have a state-of-the-art facility that will have room for programming, for educational space, and for the kind of interaction between kids and officers that will promote a better atmosphere," said Elizabeth Glazer, Director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. 

According to the city, there are 188 16-and 17-year-old inmates on Rikers Island. Thirty-six percent of them are facing robbery charges and another 10 percent are accused of assaulting someone. The city says that more than half of adolescents are typically in and out of jail within four days.  New York is the only state in the country besides North Carolina that prosecutes teenagers as adults once they turn 16. Legislation to change that has stalled in Albany. 

"Although removing 16- and 17-year-olds from the island is no substitute for raising the age of criminal responsibility so that teenagers would never be sent to a violent and dysfunctional adult facility like Rikers...these steps could be life-saving for many young people," said Donna Lieberman from the New York Civil Liberties Union. 

The transfer of adolescents is expected to take four years to complete, because it must go through a lengthy land-use process that requires the approval of several entities, including the local community board and the city council. 

Horizon, the juvenile detention to be used for the transfer of adolescents from Rikers, is located in the South Bronx district represented by City Councilman Rafael Salamanca Jr. Salamanca says he visited Rikers recently and agrees that young adolescents don't belong there. "The conditions that I saw...it hurt my heart to be quite frank," he said. 

At the same time, he is concerned that families in his district with a child in Horizon would object to them being transferred to Brooklyn in order to make room for teenagers from Rikers. "I want to do my part and I want my community to do its part," Salamanca said."But ultimately I represent my constituents and I want to go back to them and I want to hear how they feel about this plan."

 Horizon Juvenile Detention Center in the Bronx.