New programming to help juveniles added to Horizon Juvenile Center

New classes introduced to the Horizon Juvenile Center within the last two months are trying to get juveniles back on track.
The Raise Your Age legislation enacted last fall required only inmates 18 years or older be treated as adults, forcing all 16- and 17-year-olds at Rikers Island to be transferred to juvenile facilities such as Horizon. Horizon, run by ACS and now the DOC, housed younger kids before the new law.
Executive director Susan Campos says as a result, there were major riots at the center last fall. The new classes, she says, are meant to give them important life skills.
Campos says the center added three new classrooms to accommodate the 60 incarcerated youth. The teenagers also get regular instruction from teachers from the Department of Education.
She says she hopes to expand vocational programming even more in the months to come.