Incarceration of adolescents is estimated to cost between $200,000 and $300,000 per youth, per year in New York State.
Considering the poor results of our prison system to rehabilitate our youthful offenders, it is no wonder that a majority of states, red and blue in the U.S. have launched new initiatives and passed new bills to overhaul the way they treat adolescent and teenage offenders.
Virtually every state in the union has adopted fair and just practices that protect communities and help all kids become responsible adults. But not New York State!
I urge our newly elected senator, Elaine Phillips, to join me and hundreds of her constituents to support the Raise the Age legislation, that has been stalled in the state Senate for the past few years.
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate IDC Leader Jeffrey Klein have all voiced support to finally pass legislation against underage incarceration in the state.
Gov. Cuomo stands behind the legislation, which proposes to keep children under the age of 18 out of adult prisons, to ensure the presence of a parent or guardian during questioning and sentencing and ensure a juvenile will not be imprisoned for breaking parole — given they are not a danger to others— as well as require family support centers and special care for children with significant behavioral health issues.
Last year, the governor had earmarked funding to transfer youthful offenders out of adult state prisons, where they can receive much needed rehabilitative services.
The savings in terms of reducing crime and youth recidivism, and especially, in terms of lives, will be enormous.
The adolescent brain is still developing; adolescents respond well to interventions, learn to make responsible choices, and are likely to grow out of delinquent behavior.
This same undeveloped brain that is often responsible for reckless, impulsive behavior, is malleable and equally receptive to positive change.
Raise the Age legislation is pending in the state Legislature, hopefully to be voted upon in the current term.
The bill has the support of over 200 organizations, hundreds of clergies, and community groups, who have been working tirelessly to raising awareness across the state for over 10 years.
Forty-eight, yes 48 states are again raising the upper age of jurisdiction, including Connecticut — age 18, Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi.
But not New York!
Here and in North Carolina, the only other state, 15 and 16 year olds continue to be prosecuted and imprisoned as adults, with adults, in adult hellholes, like Riker’s Island.
Those offenders can wait in prison, for years to go to trial — a disproportionate number of them, black and Latino, unable to post bail — even for a petty crime, like the theft of a backpack.
Not only do they not receive services provided by family court, like supervision, counseling, education, training, they are twice as likely to report being beaten by inmates or prison guards, than children placed in youth facilities.
Help put New York State back on the right map, along with the other 48 states which have boldly raised the age of adult criminal responsibility.
Restore the chance for a stable future to so, so many young lives.
Jeanette Walowitz
Great Neck
Bend the Arc
Are you joking or have you simply not fully expressed your thoughts?
If you are serious then maybe you should get a psychiatric evaluation or simply voluntary commit yourself to an appropriate facility.
While the general idea, and I mean GENERAL idea isn’t that crazy, it is nuts to propose an incarceration parameter based solely on the offenders age. Do you even understand that when some offender is prosecuted, and found guilty, the resulting sentence is intended to be a punishment? A sentence is not meant to be like giving a child a stern talking to.
The question of whether or not an offender should be incarcerated upon conviction should begin with the prosecutor and the decision of what charges to be brought against the offender. There are already sentencing guidelines in place. The suggestion of sending a youthful offender to be rehabilitated instead of incarcerated makes no sense. Being remanded to a mental or “rehabilitation” facility it’s still a form of incarceration.
If your idea is to not require any form of incarceration and to simply let an offender “go home” and attend re-hab on their own or under a parents supervision – also a stupid idea if decided on age alone. Have you heard of something called probation? (Which is already in place and used when appropriate)
I certainly have no qualifications to even begin suggesting what all of the parameters should be, but common sense tells us that some of the things that MUST be considered in creating these kind of parameters are, in no specific order:
The offense committed/convicted of
Prior offenses, if any, the offender offender has been ACCUSED of
Prior offenses, if any, the offender offender has been CONVICTED of
The effect of the offense on the victim
The mental state of the offender
Of course my list is not going to be all inclusive, as there is likely many other appropriate items to consider.
In my opinion, if an offender does have prior offenses that they have been convicted of then all bets are off, they deserve prison.