BILL NUMBER: S643
SPONSOR: CLEARE
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to establishing the
youth justice innovation fund
 
PURPOSE:
To create a Youth Justice Innovation Fund, administered by the division
of criminal justice services and distributed to community-based organ-
izations to be expended for services and programs with the purpose of
youth development and preventing youth arrest and incarceration, includ-
ing, but not limited to, those providing violence-prevention services;
alternative to detention, placement and incarceration programs for youth
and reentry, education and employment training and placement programs
for youth though age twenty-five. Such funding shall supplement and not
supplant existing support for local probation services under the "Raise
the Age" law.
 
SUMMARY:
Section 1. Amends the state finance law by adding a new section 89- gg.
Section 2. Sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
After the implementation of New York state's Raise the Age law in 2018,
it was pledged that the program providing supervision and treatment
services for at-risk youth would be adequately funded. Despite this
promise, as of March 2024, less than a third of the $1.5 billion appro-
priated for this purpose has been disbursed, leading to a backlog of
unresolved family court cases. This legislation will expedite the
disbursement of $50 million in funds from the annual appropriation of
$250 million to community-based organizations that work with youth who
are at risk of, alleged to be, or adjudicated as juvenile delinquents,
juvenile offenders, or adolescent offenders through age twenty-five.
This funding will be specifically focused on funding services and
programs with the purpose of youth development and preventing youth
arrest and incarceration, including, but not limited to, those providing
violence-prevention services; alternatives to detention, placement and
incarceration programs for youth and reentry, education, and employment
training and placement programs for youth.
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT:
Providing timely access to resources is especially critical for communi-
ties of color due to the significant racial disparity in arrest, prose-
cution, and incarceration. A 2019 study conducted by the Sentencing
Project found that in New York, juvenile placement rates for Black
youths are more than 5 times higher than those for their white peers.
Moreover, the difference in placement rates between the two racial
groups was found to have only decreased by 2% between 2015 to 2019 leav-
ing a slightly smaller yet still considerable disparity between Black
youth and White youth. Accelerated funding for juvenile programs is
required to address these inequalities through prevention initiatives.
The proposed legislation aims to expedite the allocation of funds to
community organizations to facilitate the full implementation of Raise
the Age programming. According to a 2017 national report by Georgetown
Law's Center on Poverty and Inequity, examining the disparate treatment
of Black juvenile girls by various system actors, Black girls are 2.7
times more likely than White girls to be referred to juvenile justice,
are 1.2 times more likely to be detained, as well as three times more
likely to be removed from their homes and placed in state custody
compared to white girls. There is an imperative to provide greater aid
for juvenile programming, and through this bill, the distribution of
funds will be expedited to community organizations.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to expenditures
made on and after April 1, 2025.