Abigail Kramer

Many residential treatment facilities for children in New York are shutting down, leaving families frustrated and scrambling to find mental health services. Some kids age out of care as they wait.

Stefan Outlaw had just recovered from the worst of his Covid-19 symptoms when he learned that a charitable fund had paid to bail him out of the Rikers Island jail. But now he found himself in a situation that's far from uncommon for people leaving jails and prisons in New York: On the street at 2:00 a.m. with no money, no phone, and nowhere to go.

Covid-19 has torn through the City's juvenile detention centers. Frantic parents say their kids should be sent home.

Massive conspiracy indictments are designed to bring down entire crews at once. But public housing residents describe the city's recent gang busts as just another version of the policing they've always had: too big, too reliant on tenuous evidence, and far too quick to brand an entire neighborhood of kids as criminals.

Public housing residents experience both crime and police surveillance at rates far higher than most of the city. Can the relationship between police and the people be restored?

Public housing residents experience both crime and police surveillance at rates far above the rest of the city. Can trust between cops and residents be restored?

Probation goes back to the neighborhood.

After more than two years of delays and postponements, city officials say they will move forward this month with a long-promised overhaul of the biggest municipal juvenile justice system in the nation.

At 14 years old, Casper* has been sent to live in more institutions than she can tick off on both hands.

New juvenile-justice group homes start with the premise that kids have survived trauma. Using therapy, incentives and discipline, they aim to help young people make better decisions.

Over 40 percent of kids sent to Close to Home lockups last year came from just 16 New York City zip codes. Many of them are there for status offenses, like skipping school, that wouldn’t be considered illegal if they were committed by adults.

When New York City launched it’s Close to Home reform in 2012—removing city youth from state-run juvenile justice lockups and placing them instead in small, group-home-like residences within the city limits—it was in the wake of scandal: Federal investigators had found state facilities to be rife with abuse, granting staff near impunity for using violence against young inmates.