Establishment of teams to review the population of youth held in secure detention facilities.

This bill would require the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to establish teams to evaluate the circumstances of each youth held in secure detention using a variety of factors and recommend candidates for early release or early case resolution. The teams would be required to share recommendations with the youth’s defense attorney, and would be required, or permitted in some instances, to share them with other parties involved in the youth’s case if the defense attorney consents. ACS, the Department of Education, the Department of Probation, and other city agencies providing certain services in secure detention facilities would be required to participate in the teams. This bill would also require ACS to report twice yearly on the teams’ work, including but not limited to, the number of youth the teams reviewed, the number of youth the teams identified as candidates for early release or early case resolution, and the number of these youth released from secure detention.