By C1 Staff
NEW YORK CITY — City officials plan to move adolescents out of its Rikers Island jail complex to a detention center in the South Bronx.
The Horizon Juvenile Center, an existing detention facility in the Bronx that is currently being used by the Administration for Children’s Services, would be the new home for 16- and 17-year-olds.
According to officials, the plan is expected to take four years. The move will be the first time juveniles have been out of Rikers since 1932.
As a part of the plan, a Brooklyn facility, Crossroads Juvenile Center, will be renovated for adolescents currently held at Horizon, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The plan first has to go through the process of the city’s land-use review, which requires input from local community boards and others.
Officials believe Horizon is the ideal site for the transfer because it is near public transportation and has classroom and program space. It has a wing that could be used for those who only stay a short time as 55 percent of young people leave Rikers within four days.
The numbers of adolescents at Rikers has declined steadily, from 337 in fiscal year 2013 to 188 this fiscal year, according to the WSJ.
More than 95 percent of the Rikers’ juveniles haven’t been convicted and are awaiting trial.