Hundreds of former juvenile inmates sue New York City for child sexual abuse in prisons

More than 250 former juvenile inmates have filed lawsuits against the City of New York – including 100 this week alone – alleging sexual abuse as children by staff and other inmates at four former and current correctional facilities.

The allegations, which span from the 1970s to 2022, target guards, counselors and others who were supposed to look after the youth in their care. Instead, the plaintiffs say, they were bribed and manipulated by staff. Special privileges and contraband – such as cigarettes, drugs and alcohol – were exchanged for sexual favors, the complaints say.

Most of the former inmates were younger than 16 at the time of the alleged abuse at the two current youth correctional facilities – Crossroads and Horizon – on Rikers Island and the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Center, their lawyer said Thursday at a press conference at Brooklyn Borough Hall where the lawsuits were announced.

“Many of our clients were incarcerated for minor offenses,” said Jerome Block, a partner at Levy Konigsberg LLP, a law firm that specializes in child sexual abuse and exploitation cases. “Sometimes these charges against juveniles were even later dropped. Some were in these juvenile detention centers for weeks or months and were sexually abused during that short period of time.”

Nijere Stewart, 14, served less than half a year at the Crossroads in Brooklyn in 2018. He was arrested for a nearby weapon. The charges were later dropped, his lawyer said. But before that, he was sexually abused.

“I went from being an innocent kid with straight A’s who loved playing with her brothers and walking on stilts in Crown Heights to being a traumatized and ashamed teenager because I had to live a nightmare every night in front of the adults who were supposed to protect me,” Stewart said.

Stewart claims that when he first arrived at the youth center, a male staff member grabbed his buttocks as he passed him in the hallway, his complaint states. From there, the allegations escalated. The staff member fondled his genitals about three times a week, sometimes under his clothing, and forced him to perform oral sex and raped him in two separate incidents, according to court documents.

Stewart reported the employee to a counselor and his mother, who reported the incident to Crossroads. But even after the report, the abuse continued, the complaint says.

Just a few years earlier, Clyde Wiggins served more than a year in the same prison after his lawyer testified that the then 16-year-old was in a car with adults who robbed a convenience store and took the blame as a minor. For more than half of his sentence, Crossroads hired a tutor who performed oral sex on him during sessions in the dorm area, according to a separate complaint.

Wiggins was bribed with alcohol and food from outside Crossroads, the filing says, but he later reported the employee and was transferred to Horizon. Since his release nearly two decades ago, he has tried to get back into music, which he said was his passion before his arrest. But it hasn’t been easy.

“After that, when I came home and stuff, that passion was gone,” Wiggins said. “I’m trying to find it again as an adult through my kid, but you know, it’s hard.”

The hundreds of lawsuits, all filed since April, were brought under a city law against gender-based violence that extended the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits for a two-year bar in 2022. The temporary measure was praised by advocates who said it could take time for young people to come forward.

“The trauma of sexual abuse – especially abuse at such a young age – takes years to process before many can even think about coming forward and reporting,” said Emily Miles, executive director of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. “For those who face the complex trauma of abuse while incarcerated, the process of reporting can take even longer.”

Rikers no longer holds young teenagers after the state passed a law called “Raise the Age,” and Spofford, later renamed Bridges, was permanently closed in 2011. Crossroads and Horizon hold an average of 260 young people daily, a 31% increase since last year, the Daily News previously reported.

Horizon is currently expanding with an addition that will include dozens of new beds.

A spokesman for the Administration for Children’s Services, which currently oversees juvenile detention centers, said it complies with federal law preventing sexual assault on inmates and updated its policies and practices on dealing with sexual misconduct earlier this year.

Each facility has a compliance manager to oversee compliance with the law, and other staff members must conduct at least one unannounced inspection during each shift, according to the agency. All uniformed staff who work with inmates must complete basic sexual misconduct training and semi-annual “refresher” courses. Individuals who violate policies can be referred to law enforcement.

“ACS has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual abuse and sexual harassment of juveniles in detention centers and we are committed to the prevention and elimination of sexual abuse and sexual harassment,” the statement said. “We will review all complaints filed.”