By Steven Yoder via The Imprint

If supporters and opponents of New York State’s 2017 Raise the Age law agree on one thing, it’s that they’re frustrated.

Those who want to strengthen the law that moved most 16- and 17-year-olds out of the adult criminal justice system say it has never worked as intended — because money to prevent future crime and steer youth toward healthier futures has gone untapped. Those who want to narrow its mandate blame the reform for cases in which young people committed serious crimes.

Early in the 2025 state legislative session, both sides have proposed fixes.

Supporters would set aside money to give to community groups for youth crime prevention. Opponents want to charge more youth accused of serious crimes as adults.

New York law explained

Until 2017, New York was one of only two states that automatically prosecuted 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Raise the Age, passed in April that year, went into effect in October 2019. 

In essence, it requires those younger than 18 be treated as children when charged with all but the most serious crimes. Their cases move through the family courts, and they are offered intervention and evidence-based treatment instead of harsh punitive measures, such as incarceration in locked facilities and sentences that could hobble their futures.

The law includes exceptions. Cases involving teens ages 13 to 17 who are accused of serious crimes are still heard in adult court, in a Youth Part branch, presided over by family court judges. Those crimes involve a gun or serious injury to the victim, sexual offenses, and cases in which “extraordinary circumstances” exist, a term undefined in the law.

Under Raise the Age, the state reimburses counties for following its requirements. That includes funding for revamping county juvenile justice systems — money for additional probation officers and space in youth detention facilities, for example. It also includes the costs of prevention efforts, including programs to keep youth out of trouble, and provide alternatives to detention.

To cover those costs, the Legislature and governor have appropriated $250 million each year since the law started. But only about a third of that has been disbursed. And most of what has been paid has gone to cover county juvenile justice system costs rather than to prevention services, according to state data obtained by a New York nonprofit through freedom of information requests.

“What was special about Raise the Age was that it didn’t just increase the age of criminal responsibility but also promised this investment into youth services,” said Caitlyn Passaretti of the New York City-based Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. “Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that come to fruition.”

Harsh measures, then reform

For decades, youth crime and detention has been on a dramatic downward trend.

After a spike in youth arrests for violent crime in the mid-’90s, states passed a wave of harsh laws that allowed youth to be prosecuted as adults. But as arrests plunged by almost 75% through 2020, federal data show — and advocates pushed for better treatment of the nation’s youth — states reassessed those policies and began shutting down the prisons that housed them.

Between 2009 and 2020, 11 states raised the age of “criminal responsibility” to 18, steering teens away from adult courts and lockups. And as they did, advocates called for reforms centered on alternatives to detention. They included diversion programs, community-based prevention efforts, counseling and family involvement.

In New York, one of those 11 states, arrest numbers show that Raise the Age hasn’t increased youth crime. Outside New York City, youth arrests dropped 32% from 2019 to 2023, according to state data.

In the city, the number of arrests of those ages 17 and younger on felony assault, dangerous weapons, and robbery charges did rise from 2018 to 2024, according to a Jan. 31 report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which employs respected criminologists widely cited in state and national reports.

But the numbers also rose for other age groups during that period, which included the severe and widespread social and economic disruptions caused by the pandemic. So overall, youth arrests remained stable in relation to total arrests during those seven years.

“Thus, it does not appear to be accurate to attribute recent increases in violent crime” to Raise the Age, wrote John Jay researchers Jeffrey Butts and Gina Moreno.

Little investment in prevention 

Complicating any clear analysis is the fact that the law has not been fully realized, due to the limited spending on alternative pathways for youth.

Every year since the Raise the Age reform took effect — even amid periodic controversy — the Legislature and governor have appropriated $250 million to reimburse counties. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2025 budget again includes that amount.

To get reimbursed for any youth crime prevention programs they launch, counties have to first develop a Raise the Age plan and submit it to the state.

But according to a Jan. 16 report by Politico, of the $1.55 billion in total that the state has appropriated since 2018, just $569 million has been used.

Several things have gone wrong, said Passaretti. Many counties, especially smaller and poorer ones outside the New York city metro, don’t have the ability to front the money to run prevention programs while waiting for the money to be repaid. So they don’t get off the ground.

What’s more, the reimbursement process is time-consuming and cumbersome, involving approval by three state agencies, another hardship for under-resourced counties.

“What was special about Raise the Age was that it didn’t just increase the age of criminal responsibility but also promised this investment into youth services. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that come to fruition.”

— Caitlyn Passaretti, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York

Five of the state’s most populous counties — the five boroughs of New York City — are excluded from the reimbursement because of tax provisions in the law.

And little of the money that has gone out has been used for prevention. The non-profit Children’s Defense Fund-New York filed freedom of information requests to get access to approved county Raise the Age plans. The group analyzed the plans of the 10 counties with the highest number of arrests of those under age 18.

In 8 of those 10, more than 80% of the approved spending went for placement, detention and law enforcement, said Julia Davis of the Children’s Defense Fund-New York. Only 20% went for prevention programs and services.

Two Democratic state legislators are proposing a fix.

On Jan. 8, state Sen. Cordell Cleare of Manhattan and Long Island assemblymember Michaelle Solages reintroduced bills to create a youth justice innovation fund: $50 million carved out of the $250 million to go directly to community-based organizations to use on youth development and crime prevention.

Those proposals would — for the first time — also make New York City eligible for reimbursement. The fund would also be available for use in serving young adults until they turned 26.

“Especially in places where there’s a need for more violence interruption, credible messengers, and other work around youth violence, that work is really most effectively done by community-based organizations,” said Davis.

Asked whether the governor supports the bills, Hochul press secretary Matthew Janiszewski said by email that she’ll review the legislation if it passes both houses.

The push to roll back Raise the Age 

Some lawmakers in both major parties want to amend the reform to funnel more teenagers into adult court to be prosecuted.

Two Democrats have introduced bills that would define the law’s “extraordinary circumstances” provision.

Eligible cases would include, but not be limited to, those involving youth accused of committing a series of crimes over multiple days, acting “in an especially cruel and heinous manner,” leading or coercing other adolescents into participating, or illegally possessing a gun, even if it’s not used.

Assembly sponsor Marianne Buttenschon told The Imprint her bill was motivated by the case of a store owner in her district who was robbed and beaten by four 13-year-olds. The youth were not charged as adults, she said. 

“I want to make sure the victim is heard,” she said.

Republicans have introduced an even more sweeping bill. Legislation sponsored by Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay would require any youth accused of a violent felony to be charged as an adult unless all parties, including the prosecution, agree to charge them as a minor.

There are signs the law’s core elements are on firmer ground this year with the state’s democratic leaders. A spokesperson for New York City mayor Eric Adams, asked whether the mayor supports the roll-backs, referred The Imprint to Adams’ remarks in a Jan. 22 press conference in which he said his administration is still assessing the impacts of Raise the Age. Gov. Hochul’s proposed budget this year also excludes rollbacks she’s sought in years past, and she hasn’t recently raised the issue.

Davis and other Raise the Age advocates oppose those measures, pointing to lack of evidence that it’s increased youth crime and its existing provisions for charging some youth as adults in the most serious cases. Under those rules, almost 1 in 5 kids ages 13 through 17 arrested for alleged felonies were prosecuted as adults in 2023, according to state data.

Those who campaigned for the reform say they want to see all its provisions fully implemented before changes are considered.

“Let’s actually see the prevention money go out, have the law work as intended for a few years and then see what’s happening,” said Passaretti.