CSEA is fighting to preserve juvenile justice services after the New York State Budget proposed to close four Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) juvenile justice facilities across the state.
Two of the facilities, Brentwood Residential Center for Girls and Columbia Girls Secure Facility, are among the state’s only dedicated juvenile justice facilities for girls.
The closure of Brentwood Residential Center would leave Long Island without a juvenile justice facility for girls and no such facility is located in New York City, either. Families would have to travel to a facility several hours away to get the vital treatments that the girls need. It’s also important that the girls’ families are able to easily visit to help the girls get their lives back on the right path.
Another facility slated to close, Goshen Secure Center in Orange County, is also in fairly close proximity to the New York City area, where many of the youths come from.
OCFS has not presented any plan on where the youths would be transferred. The proposed closures will lead to the elimination of critical services that CSEA members provide to some of the state’s most vulnerable residents, as well as leave community members without an important resource for their children.
CSEA members working at Brentwood Residential Center for Girls provide care for adjudicated youth whose families count on the center to help their children integrate back into the community.
CSEA members provide many services at the facility, including direct care, food services, custodial and grounds maintenance.
Gadson
“The next closest girls’ facility is [several]hours away,” said Brentwood Residential Center for Girls Youth Division Aide Bunny Gadson. “A lot of the girls who come here have already been through the system in some way; this facility is their last hope. It’s important to have an all-girls facility so the children can focus on their treatment and not dating.”
Mandatory therapy is a central component to the care that is provided at the facility.
“A lot of the kids refuse therapy when they’re at home,” said Brentwood Residential Center for Girls Youth Development Counselor Denean Brown. “When kids are in placement at this facility, they are required to attend therapy sessions, along with school and other services that we provide.”
In the Capital Region, CSEA members are focused on fighting the proposed closure of Columbia Girls Secure Facility, which is the only secure juvenile justice facility exclusively for girls. Capital Region President Ron Briggs, other region officers and region Political Action Committee members have been lobbying state officials, making social media appeals and doing member outreach.
— Wendi Bowie and Therese Assalian
