NY: Calls to Roll Back Raise the Age Laws Reach NY Statehouse, But Find Little Traction
Imprint – March 08, 2022
In a budget hearing last month in the New York state capital, a Finger Lakes Republican senator pushed the state’s top child and family services official, Commissioner Sheila Poole, to explain if it was true what he’d heard, that older gang members were exploiting teenagers to commit crimes with guns. Under state law since 2017, only adults 18 and older face the more serious penalties of adult court. Sen. Thomas O’Mara (R) echoed a recent concern raised by Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams – that the law is being used by adult gang members who are “victimizing children by forcing them to carry the weapons.” In the wake of high-profile shootings, such as the death of a teenage girl and the killing of a city police officer, Adams is calling for rollbacks of the state’s pivotal “Raise the Age” reform law, which ended the routine prosecution of 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. First in a two-part examination of the Raise the Age Law in New York.
Also: Raising The Age of Criminal Prosecution: How Does it Serve Youth and The Public? (Part two): https://imprintnews.org/justice/juvenile-justice-2/raising-the-age-of-criminal-prosecution-how-does-it-serve-youth-and-the-public/63258
https://imprintnews.org/justice/juvenile-justice-2/ny-raise-the-age-pushback/63150