‘I’m a Human Rights Violator’: Staff at Youth Prison Recount Lockdowns, Turmoil, 24-Hour Shifts

Under state regulations, boys incarcerated at the 130-bed complex are supposed to spend their days in class, participate in vocational programs, and socialize with peers in their housing unit. Instead, they’ve been locked in cells, sometimes for upwards of 23 hours a day, for days or weeks on end, according to a lawsuit filed last month against the state agency that runs the facility. Most of the cells lack bathrooms, leaving the youth to urinate into bottles when they can’t hold it, and some lack air conditioning, staff said. Kids in one building spend summer days sleeping on the floor without clothes.

Crisis is the status quo at Industry, as it has been across much of New York’s youth prison system. For years, pervasive dysfunction has flown under the radar. Staff and advocates for youth hope to change that.

In response to a callout from New York Focus, four workers shared anecdotes and documents outlining harrowing conditions at Industry. Two currently work at the complex; two are on leave but worked shifts last year. They spoke on the condition of anonymity, noting that they could face discipline for sharing information with the press. New York Focus confirmed their employment histories using public state payroll data.

The workers described a grave staffing shortage in the state’s youth prisons that has hindered operations since at least 2022. The documents they shared show widespread understaffing, with Industry’s two facilities among the hardest hit, especially when it comes to low-level staffers responsible for supervising incarcerated youth. Over the past year and a half, one of the facilities regularly operated with 90 percent fewer of those workers available than it’s supposed to.

When there aren’t enough support staff, those on duty are left with few options other than locking kids in cells. Meanwhile, staff rush from one area to another to address emergencies. Workers have been injured confronting frustrated detainees. Some staff have been forced to work shifts that last 24 hours or longer — then report back the next day.

In response to a detailed list of questions, the state Office of Children and Family Services, or OCFS, which runs the youth prisons, said in a statement that it has “clear protocols that are designed to ensure the safety of youth, and staff, while incorporating trauma-informed and mental health-responsive practices.”

“We have, and will continue to, undertake significant efforts to strengthen staff recruitment and retention while reinforcing operations, oversight, and accountability to ensure every young person in our facilities is protected and treated with dignity and respect,” the agency said.

From the workers’ perspective, agency leadership has accepted the status quo, and left them to suffer the consequences.

The workers spoke to New York Focus out of frustration and guilt, hoping publicity will spur decision-makers to investigate conditions at the facilities and take action. State legislators will have an opportunity to probe the issue on Thursday, when OCFS leadership testifies at an annual budget hearing.

“Why are we here? We are part of the problem,” a staffer said, breaking into tears.

“I’m a human rights violator,” said another.

Last year, Industry was budgeted to employ 223 full-time youth support workers, who supervise youth during programs and recreation, according to data compiled by the Public Employees Federation, a union that represents some of the facility’s workers. The facilities employed 32 percent of that number as of last summer, and only half of those were available to work, with the rest out on workers’ compensation or other types of leave. The higher-security facility had only 11 percent of its target number of youth support staff available.

Chronic understaffing leads to tension within the facilities, workers said. OCFS requires units to have an appropriate ratio of staff to youth — generally between four and six kids for every trained staffer, depending on the unit — to facilitate programming and recreation, staff said.

When there aren’t enough staff to achieve that ratio, workers are forced to “restructure” the programming, staffers explained. At times, that means letting half of a unit’s kids out of their cells at a time, or letting some units out of their cells while the rest of the facility is locked down, staff said. Experienced workers who have good rapport with the youth sometimes let them out of their rooms when they’re out of ratio, risking getting written up by their managers so kids can socialize or use the phone.

“I would rather take the risk of getting paperwork than leaving kids in the room for 24 or 48 or 72 hours,” said a youth support coordinator at Industry.

Other times, understaffing leads to extended lock-ins, during which the kids are secluded with no way to call home or interact with staff or peers. “It’s essentially solitary confinement,” the worker said. There’s often no schooling during lock-ins, though education staff will sometimes give kids worksheets in lieu of classroom time, staff said.

“They’re depriving these kids of an education,” another worker said of OCFS.

Prolonged solitary confinement can lead to psychosis, depression, and self-harm, particularly in young people, research has shown. A state comptroller report found that documented incidents of self-harm that included “an expression or gesture of suicide” in OCFS secure facilities rose 667 percent between 2019 and the end of 2022.

Industry staff describe youth having breakdowns while they’re in isolation.

“We’ve had kids that would wipe feces on the wall,” one staffer said. Others bang on their cell doors or urinate into the hallway.

“I mean, what would you do if you’re locked in a room and your base fundamental needs aren’t being met?” the staffer said.

“We run from one campus to the next, crisis after crisis,” the youth support coordinator said. As the on-duty administrator, they’d sometimes have to lock down one facility to send support staff to the other — which could lead to further problems.

“Once we shut down one campus, the kids on that campus are upset, so we have to run back down,” they said. They recalled instances in which staff have restrained multiple kids in both facilities simultaneously.

“It’s just controlled chaos,” they said.

Randi DiAntonio, vice president of the Public Employees Federation, which represents teachers, psychiatrists, and other specialized OCFS workers, recounted an instance in late 2023 during which an education worker at Industry was left alone with a group of boys. A resident hit her in the face, causing a “disfiguring” injury, DiAntonio said. (She declined to provide further details, citing medical privacy.) 

The union has documented other instances of staff getting injured. Last year, a worker “sustained life-altering injuries” when a resident used a vent cover torn off his housing unit to hit them, the union wrote in its June letter.

Some Industry workers have expressed their concerns to OCFS. Testimonials from staff, included in a draft Public Employees Federation report from October, described administrators responding with apathy or hostility. (A federation spokesperson said the union plans to publish a final version of the report later this year.)

“They listen, but they don’t change how they operate the facility,” read one testimonial. “I have heard facility managers say, ‘you know what you signed up for’ and ‘you can find another job.’”

“They don’t care about whether we stay at the job or not. We are just bodies filling holes.”

The draft report and June letter are part of a union campaign to get OCFS to take conditions at Industry more seriously.

The campaign is one of the only things that has spurred administrators to take action, according to staff. It’s had limited success. The workers and DiAntonio said that while the facility is still severely understaffed, conditions have improved in recent months. An overhaul to the facilities’ scheduling practices has reduced instances of excessive overtime, one staffer said, and so far this year, lock-ins have rarely led to canceled schooling.

OCFS told New York Focus that it has launched statewide staffing initiatives, which include creating a recruitment and retention unit, hosting more hiring events, and making the onboarding process less burdensome.