Editorial | The push for NYC jail reform should address a complex truth

amNewYork Posted on October 15, 2025

The city’s Administration for Children’s Services is tasked with overseeing juvenile detention centers where young children charged with and/or convicted of crimes are housed as part of their sentences. Yet the Legal Aid Society accused the agency on Tuesday of maltreating children in their care at two juvenile detention facilities in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Legal Aid accused the ACS, in a letter to its commissioner, Jess Dannhauser, of creating a neglectful environment where nearly 100 juvenile detainees live in unassigned quarters, meaning they do not have designated rooms or cells where they sleep or can store their valuables.