New Report -- Raising the Age: shifting to a safer and

more effective juvenile justice system.

New York is only one of two states that consider justice

involved 16-and-17-year-olds adults.

Embargoed until March 7 2017, 12:01 am

Why are states raising the age?

Over the past ten years, half of the states that previously had excluded all 16-and/or-17-year-olds from the juvenile
court based solely on their age changed their laws so that most youth who touch the justice system will be under the
jurisdiction of the family court. These policy changes are a part of a shift called raise the age reforms focused
on keeping the tens of thousands of youth under 18 who are automatically treated as adults out of the adult criminal
justice system. Among the reasons why states have raised the age, the research shows that, justice involved
teenagers are more likely to move past delinquency and successfully transition to adulthood if they are served by the
family court system, not the adult criminal justice system.

During this past decade when seven states raised the age, the number of young people excluded from the juvenile
justice system solely because of their age was cut in half.

Prior to raising the age, stakeholders in Connecticut, Illinois and Massachusetts said juvenile corrections or justice
system costs would rise dramatically. Instead, places that have raised the age kept costs in check, had safer
communities, reduced confinement to free up resources to serve youth more effectively, and managed the change
without overwhelming the family court system.

New York is only one of two states that consider justice involved 16-and-17-year-olds adults. New York
State, New York cities and counties track record in moving towards more effective practices means, the system is
ready to bring 16-and-17-year-olds into the juvenile justice system by enacting raise the age legislation.

Why is New York ready to raise the age?

The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences has said raise the age is part and parcel of the
kind of developmentally appropriate juvenile justice approach that every youth justice system should be moving
towards. While New York has not yet raise the age, the state has been taking steps for a decade towards using more
effective approaches that reduce young peoples justice system involvement, enhance public safety, and will help the
state manage the jurisdictional change without overwhelming the family court system.

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The steps New York has made towards a more effective approach include:

1) Expanding the use of diversion: Rather than needlessly drive up law enforcement, court and juvenile
corrections costs, New York City and communities across the state are diverting more young people from
the justice system, and instead, are connecting youth to a service when they need that need. 1 New York
State set up a funding stream that county or city family court systems have been using to increase the use of
diversion across the state.2 Between 2009 and 2012, New York City increased the rate at which they divert
youth out of the system by 36 percent. In 2012, 88 percent of youth diverted from the justice system in
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New York City completed diversion.

2) Making probation and aftercare approaches more effective: New York is moving towards a
probation approach that is more focused on engaging a young person in behavior change, is partnering with
community organizations, is working with families, and is attempting to limit the likelihood a young
persons supervision will be revoked. As New York City moved towards a better probation approach,
between 2009 and 2013, the city saw a 45 percent decrease in probation violation ratessomething that
means a young person is less likely to cycle back to an expensive detention or confinement option.

3) Reducing the use of pretrial detention: Reducing the number of youth who are incarcerated before
trial helps reduces costs, helps a family court system operate more effectively, and helps young people
avoid the negative consequences associated with detention, like increased reoffending and incarceration.
Since 2010, New York State communities have seen statewide pretrial detention use decline 38 percent,
most notably in Albany (44 percent), Monroe (67 percent) and Nassau (69 percent) due to their ongoing
participation in Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative. From 2010 to 2015, New York State as a whole
saw a 42 percent reduction in pretrial detention admissions.

4) Reducing reliance on facilities, and focusing resources on community-based approaches:

Because New York State and localities developed approaches to reduce reliance on facilities for a decade,
New York is more prepared to absorb older youth into their family court system. Using a variety of
strategies, New York State was able to reduce the length of stay in placement from 12-18 months, to 7
months. Due to their reduced reliance on out-of-home confinement, New York State closed or downsized
31 facilities. These strategies opened opportunities for the advancement of community-based approaches
that seek to serve youth in the own community, such as the efforts of the New York Citys Administration
for Children Services Close to Home Initiative: New York City is partnering with nine non-profits and
providers of 31 non-secure residential placements to youth that emphasizes individualized treatment in their
own city. From 2006 through 2015, New York State saw an 80 percent reduction in the average daily
population of youth in an Office of Children and Family Services facility.

5) Improving the juvenile justice systems management of resources, and strengthening

strategies to serve young people more effectively: When juvenile justice systems make better use of
tools that can assess what a young person might need to move past delinquency, a system can shift to a
more cost effective approach. Some of New York States local probation departments worked towards
improving their community supervision approach with the development and use of Juvenile Risk
Intervention Services Coordination (JRISC). JRISC was designed to help juvenile probation officers
address the risk and needs of young people and reduce recidivism among youth at either the diversion or
probation supervision stage, and is being used by probation departments in Dutchess, Monroe, Niagra,
Onodage, Orange, Oswego, and Schenectady counties. New York Citys Department of Probation
implemented and successfully uses a Structured Decision-Making tool that helps the system design a better
approach to addressing a young persons needs in a cost effective way.

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New York can reallocate resources to help with raise the age implementation.

In 2016, New York taxpayers can pay as much as $300,000 or more a year to incarcerate a young person
in the states most expensive confinement options4 something that underlines how New York could
shift resources to serve more youth in the community as it implements raise the age by shifting to more
effective approaches. Juvenile confinement has dropped significantly in New York. Some juvenile justice
system has already shown it can reallocate resources within the system to serve more youth in the
community and keep costs in check, policymakers can take the next step towards having a more effective
approach by raising the age. The Final Report of the Governors Commission on Youth, Public Safety and
Justice has also offered a roadmap of how New York can raise the age without overwhelming the system.

Unless referenced below, for more information and a full list of citations, see, Raising the Age: shifting to
a safer and more effective juvenile justice system. (Washington, D.C: The Justice Policy Institute, 2017),
which will be available on the Justice Policy Institute website www.justicepolicy.org on March 7, 2017.

1
Various Authors, The Governors Commission on Youth, Public Safety and Justice (Albany, NY: New York State Governors Office, 2016).
2
Various Authors, Using Bills and Budgets to Further Reduce Youth Incarceration (Oakland, California: National Council on Crime and
Delinquency, 2014).
3
N.A., Do More Good: A Progress Report from the NYC Department of Probation (New York, NY: New York City Department of Probation,
2013).
4
According to the Office of Children and Family Services, New York State taxpayers can pay up to $1,136.56 per day for a youth to be in Secure
Residential Services, can pay $1,683.20 per day for a youth to be in Limited-Secure Residential Services, can pay $1,843.56 per day for a youth
to be in Non-Community Based Residential Services, and can pay $938.78 per day for a youth to be in an Evening Reporting Center. These costs
can be split between state and local juvenile justice systems. If that youth were confined in these least expensive of these options for a full year,
it can cost New York taxpayers upwards of $342,654 for a youth to be in that option for a year. New York State, Office of Children and Family
Services Per Diem Chargeback Rates for OCFS Operated Facilities and Programs CY 2013 and CY 2014 Final Rates, March 22, 2016.