By WILLIAM KATES
Associated Press

SYRACUSE - There is no quick fix to reform New York's juvenile-justice system, but even critics say the state has made progress in improving conditions over the past two years.

Independent watchdog groups credit state Office of Children and Family Services Commissioner Gladys Carrion for improving the operation of the state's juvenile facilities, but cautioned that the system remains far from ideal.

"Right now, the culture is not focused on the needs of the young people," said Mishi Faruqee of the Juvenile Justice Coalition, a statewide network of child-advocacy groups. "Staff need to see their role as youth-development workers instead of as corrections officers."

Between January 2004 and May 2007 in New York, children made 686 allegations of physical, emotional or sexual abuse against staff. In some instances, the same child may have made multiple allegations. Of those, 137 - about one in four - were confirmed, according to OCFS data. There were 28 alleged sex-abuse claims, but only one was substantiated.

According to a national Associated Press survey of state agencies that oversee juvenile correction centers, more than 13,000 claims of abuse were identified around the country from 2004 through 2007. The total population of detainees was about 46,000 last year.

Just 1,343 of those claims of abuse were confirmed by various authorities. Of 1,140 claims of sexual abuse, 143 were confirmed by investigators.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Carrion agreed that part of her mission is creating a new mind-set.

"For too long we have relied on detention of our young people," said Carrion, a lawyer and longtime New York City youth activist appointed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007. "We need to get away from that penitentiary mentality. We need to have a system that serves more of our young people in community settings."

That's positive news to critics, including Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, which two years ago reported that girls at two of New York's facilities for juvenile females were sexually and physically abused by staff and denied mental-health, educational and other rehabilitative services.

The two groups complained that the state's facilities - for boys and girls - were run in a culture of secrecy with little meaningful oversight.

The report made recommendations for reform, many of which Carrion has embraced.

"All the steps have been in the right direction," said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch. "That augurs well ... but we still have considerable concerns."

In November, a statewide anti-crime coalition found that more than 70 percent of the state's juvenile offenders were arrested again within three years of their release, and 42 percent were arrested for a violent felony.

The report cited a need for more effective interventions for the state's most serious and troubled juveniles. For less-dangerous juveniles, the report recommended improved foster care and more community-based programming.

After announcing in January that it would close six underused residential youth facilities across the state as part of an ongoing restructuring to improve services to troubled children, the state now has 28 residential youth facilities.

There are approximately 2,000 children in New York's juvenile-justice system, mostly between the ages of 12 and 18 and more than 70 percent from New York City. About 15 percent are girls.

Under Carrion, the OCFS has added 218 staff positions, among them 36 mental-health workers. Carrion also hired a new deputy commissioner to oversee operation of the agency's juvenile facilities.

Mie Lewis, who wrote the HRW/ACLU report, cautioned, though, that simply adding workers is not the answer.

"When you add 200 additional staff, you are growing the institution and its culture," said Lewis. "Getting education, schooling, vocational training, those are at the heart of rehabilitation."

Carrion said the additions included expanding the OCFS's ombudsman's office from one person to 10. The ombudsman's office reviews grievances brought by children and their families. Carrion also has reinstituted an independent review board that will work with the ombudsman's office to address systemic issues. Equally important, she has opened up facilities to children's advocates, community groups and lawmakers.

"We have given our young people more access, the system is more open. We are really committed to making sure our young people and their families have an outlet for any issues they might have," Carrion said.

The report also recommended creating an independent Office of the Child Advocate to oversee all juvenile-justice and foster-care facilities, a measure that has not yet been pursued.

A critical area of concern that lingers is the permitted use of physical restraint. In New York, the accepted technique is to place young inmates face down and to lie across their backs while immobilizing their arms.

In November 2006, a 15-year-old died at the Tryon Boys Juvenile Rehabilitation Center after being physically restrained by staffers. In September, a grand jury ruled that the restraint did not contribute to the boy's death, but made recommendations for improvements in nine areas. It was the first death at an OCFS facility in 12 years.

Under Carrion, the agency's policy has been rewritten, reducing from seven to three the types of situations where staff can use physical force against inmates. But that's not enough, said Lewis.

The HRW report called for New York to limit use of force to only a situation where a child poses an imminent threat of injury to self or others and all other means of control have been exhausted.

Fellner said training is paramount, but reiterated that it needs to be the appropriate type - adolescent psychology, verbal de-escalation techniques, communication and listening skills.

"As long as you have uniformed staff who see their most important role as security, I think you are going to have a problem," Fellner said.