September 2, 2020
In April of 2017, Raise the Age legislation was signed into law, ending New York’s practice of automatically charging all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults for any offense. This was a significant piece of legislation that reinvested in the lives of young people across the state. This victory was won by a grassroots movement of youth, families, advocates, and lawyers, built across the state over more than a decade. The implementation of the new law was too important to leave unchecked and unexamined.