Susanti Sarkar, Adilia Watson, Jeremy Loudenback and Michael Fitzgerald
An entrance to the Brookwood Secure Center for Youth in upstate New York. Photo by Steven Yoder.
Self-harm, drugs and violent incidents have skyrocketed in some of New York’s locked juvenile facilities, a state auditor has found, conditions driven by pandemic-fueled staffing shortages and higher populations following a sweeping reform that shifted older teens out of the adult justice system.