Lansing Residential CenterState Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton said Tuesday that the Lansing Girl's Residential Center will likely close this year.  The juvenile detention center is in part a victim of Governor Andrew Cuomo's 'Close To Home' proposal that will transfer responsibility for juvenile delinquents from state residential centers to New York City.

"They are down to a very few residents there," Lifton said Tuesday at a meeting in the Ithaca Town Hall.  "There's been a trend over several years to close down some of the OCFS (Office of Children and Family Services) facilities.  They are talking about moving some of those kids closer to the cities and closer to home.  I will not be surprised if that happens this year."

Lifton packed the Ithaca Town Hall when more than 40 people came to hear her take on the Governor's proposed budget.  She said the state is on austerity, blaming Wall Street and the federal government for severe cuts to state agencies.  Residential centers are on the chopping block because of a combination of the city initiative, high operating costs, and a high rate of recidivism.  As many as 66% of youth are rearrested within two years.  A walloping 82% of boys released from the program commit felonies by age 28.  On top of that residential centers reportedly cost taxpayers more than $250,000 per child per year.

The OCFS facilities, including Lansing's Finger Lakes Residential Center (boys) and Lansing Residential Center (girls) and the Tryon Residential Center and Tryon Girls Center in Johnstown, have been especially troubled in recent years.  In 2007 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found the facilities had systematically violated juveniles' rights and used excessive force to keep them under control.  The DOJ also found the facilities did not offer adequate behavioral management and treatment plans.

Since that time New York City has developed the Juvenile Justice Initiative to bring city youth home from upstate residential centers, focussing on community-based alternative-to-incarceration programs.


But Lifton said that some children may benefit from the residential center approach.

"I'm trying to keep a close eye on that," she said.  "We need to do what's right for kids.  Some kids need to get out of their neighborhoods, to get away from the gangs and the drugs, and sometimes a very bad home situation.  Sometimes they're better off going some distance to a residential facility."

As the city program ramps up over the next two years, residential centers are being closed.  Lifton said that is not necessarily a good idea.

"I think we need to look at each child.  If a kid needs that residential program we need to make sure there are good residential programs for them," she said.  "Ironically Lansing had been working very hard to bring their program up to snuff and offer a lot of good services for education, mental health and so on.  But I think we may well lose that facility under the Governor's proposal."

v9i7