Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx on Easter Sunday, April 12.
Counselors at the Carroll Street Limited Secure Placement program in Brooklyn sit with a resident during a meal.
A caretaker for young adults at the Carroll Street Limited Secure Placement program plays table tennis with a resident.
A schedule and video camera seen on the wall of the Carroll Street Limited Secure Placement program.
A staffer for the Carroll Street Limited Secure Placement program looks through a resident's file at the facility.
Sign at St. Luke's in Greenwich Village in Manhattan says that an art program is suspended during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
A typical bagged meal for homeless young adults at St. Luke's during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
Nonfood supplies that are given to homeless young adults at St. Luke's during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
Volunteers at the door where they stage the bagged meals to be given out to homeless young adults at St. Luke's during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
Volunteers pose at the end of their shift of handing out bagged meals and supplies to homeless young adults at St. Luke's during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
Residents of Rising Ground's Transitional Independent Living facility make their own masks during the COVID-19 outbreak due to a citywide shortage of PPE in April 2020.
Resident of Rising Ground's Transitional Independent Living facility holds mask to her face during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Residents of Rising Ground's Transitional Independent Living facility sit at table while making their own masks during the COVID-19 outbreak due to a citywide shortage of PPE in April 2020.
A building on the campus of a juvenile detention center in New Jersey seen during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
The Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx on Easter Sunday, April 12.
A building on the campus of a juvenile detention center in New Jersey seen during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
An enclosure on the campus of a juvenile detention center in New Jersey seen during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020.
PHOTOS BY CHRIS JONES
NEW YORK — When the COVID-19 pandemic first broke in New York City this spring, the most vulnerable populations were at the bottom of a long list of people who desperately needed help during the first few months of business and school closures, shortages of personal protective equipment, food and household necessities.
Incarcerated children in and around New York City were not at the top of anyone’s mind in those chaotic and fearful first few weeks. New York Bureau Chief Daryl Khan wanted to make sure there was some visual record of what was happening at juvenile detention centers in the area during this time.
Juvenile justice was already an extremely difficult subject to photograph before COVID-19 — access is rare, and maintaining the anonymity of the kids and young adults themselves pose unique challenges. For over a month I worked to document detention, transition and aid facilities and programs in New York City as they worked tirelessly to keep incarcerated, homeless and at-risk youth safe from a virus that continues to kill more than 1,000 Americans every day.
Here are other articles on the nation’s youth-serving organizations’ responses to COVID-19.