By Graham Rayman
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A former staffer at a Brooklyn detention center for teens was charged Thursday with smuggling razor blades, weed and oxycodone into the facility for close to a year — once again highlighting a broader contraband problem at the facility, authorities said.
Lymek Frazier, 33, a youth development specialist there until his firing in January, was charged Wednesday after investigators found that he had been paid more than $72,000 via a phone cash app by youth held at the Crossroads Juvenile Center and their associates, authorities said.
“This defendant was trusted to ensure the safety and well-being of the young people under his supervision as a youth development specialist,” said Jocelyn Strauber, commissioner of the city Department of Investigation. “He betrayed that trust.”
More broadly, the city Department of Investigation disclosed Thursday that over the three years from March 2022 through this September, at least 112 contraband cell phones and close to 700 scalpels and blades of various types were seized, in addition to banned drugs and tobacco.
Crossroads, on Bristol St. between East New York Ave. and Pitkin Ave. in Brownsville, houses roughly 176 youth ages 14 to 20, with 280 staff members. The Frazier case follows the indictment of five other former Crossroads youth development specialists in June 2024 on similar charges.
The facility’s rules bar a range of items, including drugs, cell phones, tobacco and weapons.
Crossroads staffers are also barred from giving “gifts” and from taking money to perform any service, DOI said.
Youth development specialists have similar responsibilities to correction officers in the city’s adult jails.
Frazier started at Crossroads with a $51,502 salary in November 2023. He allegedly began bringing in contraband about a year later in exchange for cash transferred to an account on his phone.
Between April 2024 and October 2024, he reeled in $21,016 on 48 transactions, with the subject lines for the payments written in slang for weed, tobacco or rolling papers — “1 zip,” “papers and toe,” “sprinkles” and “grabba.”
He received another 14 payments totaling $7,350 from November 2024 to January 2025, with 12 listed as “30s” — meaning the powerful painkiller oxycodone.
A third series of payments worth $10,318 were sent to him from February to June 2024 by a sibling of a person held at the facility, officials said.
The senders would enter the nickname of a detainee, allegedly so Frazier would know who the bribes were meant to benefit.
They also had a kind of coded language — using subject lines of $1 payments back and forth to send messages to each other. One of the phones used was seized in a Crossroads housing area.
In one exchange detailed in court papers, a detainee wrote to Frazier, “I thought we was a team u switch on me like [that].”
“We both took a L [loss],” Frazier replied.
“U supposed to be gang don’t burn a good bridge,” the detainee replied.
“One hand wash the other we both wash the face,” Frazier countered. “We are gang I never burn [bridges] I’m loyal.”
Frazier’s time at Crossroads came to an end in January when a silver blade fell out of his pocket as he walked through a metal detector at the facility. The object was seized and an investigation led to his firing later that month.
Frazier was arraigned Wednesday night. He was released on home detention on a $100,000 bond and ordered to wear an electronic tracking device.
The city Administration for Children’s Services oversees Crossroads and its sister facility in the Bronx , Horizons. The total population of the two facilities combined has skyrocketed over the past five years, rising each from 119 youth in fiscal 2021 to 336 in fiscal 2025, city data shows.
“The safety and security of the youth and staff in detention is a top priority and that is why, over the past several years, we have taken additional steps to enhance safety, root out contraband by staff, youth and visitors, and decrease violence,” said ACS spokeswoman Marisa Kaufman . “We learned of this individual’s behavior as a result of our increased security measures on-site and we immediately terminated his employment and referred the matter to DOI. We hold our staff to the highest standards.”
Kaufman said ACS has boosted the number of ACS police at the facilities, enhanced search procedures for youth leaving and returning to the places, installed additional magnetometers in admissions areas and more. ACS “evaluates and strengthens policies and practices for the prevention and detection of contraband on a constant and ongoing basis,” Kaufman said.
Due to these measures, ACS independently discovered Frazier in possession of contraband, immediately terminated his employment and notified DOI, Kaufman said.
Despite the marked increase in the facilities’ population, the rates of violence in secure detention have decreased over the last three years, thanks to a range of significant changes in programming and practice, Kaufman said. Frequency and quality of searches have improved due to improved search practices at facility entry points and added equipment to improve searches, she pointed out, adding that additional high-resolution scanners are coming.
ACS has also focused on expedited training and support for its behavior management system (STRIVE+), plus enhanced training with coaching techniques focused on effective methods of deescalating incidents and engaging youth. ACS has also worked with community providers, including on-site violence interrupters, to teach the juveniles conflict resolution skills and help to mediate issues. In addition, a specialized response team has received enhanced training on how to respond to and deescalate incidents, she said.
According to ACS, youth-on-youth assaults and fights causing injuries in the detention centers have seen a steady drop over the past five years, down from a rate of 0.34 per 100 detainees in 2021 to 0.17 so far in 2025.
Similarly, youth-on-staff assaults and altercations have dropped from 0.27 per 100 detainees in 2021 to 0.12 in 2025.
The federal Nunez monitor — which, along with overseeing Rikers Island, also oversees the city’s juvenile detention facilities — in its most recent report, noted that “[C]ontinued reductions in the overall frequency of youth violence were observed during the current monitoring period, with the rate of youth-on-youth assault and youth-on-staff assault approximately 45-65% lower than the rates at the time the Agreement went into effect.”
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