[BRONX]: Click HERE for more information on the Community in Unity Coaltion [QUEENS]:Click HERE for more information on Queens residents fight GEO jail [NEW YORK CITY]: The Justice for Youth Coalition, No More Youth Jails! Campaign "We need more books, not bars; schools, not prisons; and if you're cutting everything else, cut the prison budget too."
Justice 4 Youth Coalition rallies outside the Department of Juvenile Justice
In June 2001, young activists in New York City discovered that the City Council had passed Mayor Bloomberg’s 2002 budget, allocating $64.6 million to increase the size of the city’s two juvenile jails by 200 beds. The Justice for Youth Coalition (J4YC) responded. It was comprised of formerly incarcerated youth, youth activists, community members, and grassroots organizations. J4YC took on the city to stop the expansion. At the time of the campaign, New York City operated three youth detention facilities: Bridges (formerly the Spofford Juvenile facility) and Horizons in the Bronx, and Crossroads in Brooklyn. The $64.6 million was to be used to expand the facilities at Horizons and Crossroads by 200 beds. This increase was based on the projections by the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) that youth crime rates would escalate. But juvenile crime in the city had decreased some 30% since 1994 and all three of the city’s current facilities were operating under capacity. A report by the Correctional Association of New York noted that the city spends $358 a day or $130,670 a year to detain one youth in a secure facility, while spending $9,739 a year on each child in school. In addition, Crossroads and Horizons were initially built to replace Spofford at a cost of $70 million in 1998. However, city officials not only did not close Spofford, but allocated an additional $8 million to renovate and rename the facility “Bridged”, while adding 150 more beds. And the need for better schools and more books, recreational facilities and alternatives to detention had been a rallying cry for years. In February 2002, the J4YC launched its “No More Youth Jails” campaign on Valentines Day, serenading Administration officials from the steps of City Hall with the chants “Love not Jails”. Campaign leaders went on the attack, lobbying city council members whose districts encompassed the detention facilities, as well as alerting the public and local officials to fight the proposed funding. The Coalition’s leaders traveled throughout the city, going into schools and attending City Council meetings, to point out the excessive costs involved, the absence of a need for new construction, the shortage of alternatives to detention, and the disproportionate impact of city incarceration policies on young people of color in New York. In July 2002, J4YC achieved success when the City Council voted to remove $53 million of the $64.6 million slated to expand the detention centers from the city’s proposed budget. The Coalition is continuing to monitor the city’s juvenile justice policies and to advocate for increased funding for education, not incarceration. (adopted from an article by Valerie McDowell in “No Turning Back”, a report by the Building Blocks for Youth Initiative, October 2003) “Incarcerate or Educate? Youth Rally to Halt Millions for Juvenile Facility Expansion” February 2002 Village Voice Article “Youth Jail Funding Detained” July 2002 Village Voice Article
Justice 4 Youth Coalition members after testifying at City Hall
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