This study of incarcerated children in New York State includes the following findings, conclusions, and recommendations: (1) too many youth are unnecessarily sent to secure detention; (2) too many stay too long, and while there receive too little in the way of programming or diagnostic assessment which could contribute to appropriate family court decisions; (3) the backlog of youth waiting to be sent from detention to placement has reached critical proportions; (4) needless and excessive reliance on secure detention requires development of new statutory criteria for admission, which permit detention only when there is a compelling reason to believe the youth will not appear in court or will commit a violent crime; (5) ongoing monitoring of admissions and length of stay must be instituted and attention must be paid to the disproportionate detention of minorities and girls; and (6) detention must not be viewed as a solution to the problem of violent crime, since 75 percent of admissions are not charged with serious or violent offenses but are still held in detention centers. Program offerings and daily procedures in secure institutions are described. (PS)