FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com JULY 28, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 3 Some elected officials are calling for communities to have a voice in regards to juvenile detention and rehabilitation centers. New bill proposed to give communities a say in juvenile detention centers By Charlie Per y [email protected]/@QNS One Queens official is calling on the City Council to enact a law that provides local communities a voice in determining the location of juvenile detention facilities in their neighborhoods. Councilman Ruben Wills issued a statement on July 25 to propose the Close to Home Notice and Comment Resolution, also known as Resolution 1162. The resolution calls on the state legislature to grant a community district in New York City the opportunity to hold meetings to discuss integrating a potential juvenile justice facility. The district would also be able to appeal any plans to build a facility to the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). When the Close to Home (CTH) initiative was introduced in 2011, Wills contends, it neglected to include local communities in the discussion of where new juvenile rehabilitation facilities would be constructed. Wills said local communities currently have no knowledge of new rehabilitation projects until after they are already built and opened. “In my South Ozone Park district, this lack of disclosure created tension that could have been avoided had there been greater transparency from the outset,” Wills said in his statement. “Resolution 1162 stresses the need for the state to remedy this issue, and take action to prepare for potential scenarios that could result in the relocation of youth offenders from city and state correctional facilities, such as a shutdown of Rikers Island, or an increase in the age of criminal responsibility.” According to their website, the Close to Home initiative was first implemented in 2011 to build on reforms of the state’s juvenile justice system. CTH is designed to keep youth close to their families and community. The initiative allows NYC youth who are tried as juvenile offenders and deemed by family court to not require a secure placement, to be placed in the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services for residential services and care. There are two phases to the Close to Home initiative. Phase one involves youth in non-secure levels of placement. Phase two involves youth who are in limited secure facility placements. “Close to Home is a worthy program with good aims, but it has not always been managed well, and that has caused anxiety within its host communities,” Wills said. “It is only appropriate that steps be taken to give due consideration to the public’s concerns.” Wills hopes a change at the city level will lead to a change at the state level. Senator James Sanders Jr. is currently working on similar legislation at the state level that was recently entered into committee. His bill, S6758A, wants to involve municipalities with 1 million or more people in the process of site selection for community facilities such as group homes, homeless shelters, detention centers, drug rehabilitation and detoxification centers, halfway houses, wastewater treatment plants, sewage facilities, waster transfer stations, landfills, power plants and chemical processing plants. “For too long, our communities have been kept in the dark when it comes to the placement of certain facilities within their borders, that is why I introduced a bill which acknowledges that residents best know their own needs and capacities and should have greater involvement in the process,” Sanders said in an email to QNS. “The legislation provides that objections could be made by the community for reasons such as over saturation of a particular type of facility, which could result in an alternate location for the site.”
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