Brooklyn Senators Jesse Hamilton and Diane Savino and the rest of the Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) today demanded the city make plans to remove juveniles from Rikers Island within a year.
The IDC, one of the strongest advocates of the recently passed Raise the Age state legislation, noted the new law requires the city to move all 16- and 17-year-olds currently held at Rikers Island to specialized juvenile detention facilities by April 1, 2018, to the extent practicable, but no later than October 1, 2018.
Overall, the measure raises the age of adult criminal responsibility in New York state from 16 to 18-years-old. Currently, there are about 150 children incarcerated at Rikers Island each day.
“Passing Raise the Age took our collective determination. Determination that young people receive the opportunity to get on the right track and become productive New Yorkers. Determination that our justice system turn away from an unjust and unwise course and turn towards compassion and common sense,” said Hamilton (D-Central Brooklyn).
“We take that same determination and turn it toward seeing Raise the Age through in full. Raise the Age is an important milestone, we remain focused on the milestones ahead and upholding values that will make for a more just justice system in New York State,” he added.
The treatment of 16- and 17-year-olds on Rikers Island has recently come under fire from advocates and prosecutors. A 2014 report by former United States Attorney Preet Bharara found that those under 18 experienced 1,057 injuries.
This treatment was most underscored in the case of Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old inmate at Rikers Island arrested on suspicion of stealing a backpack. He spent three years at Rikers before being released without ever being charged. Over the course of those 3 years, he spent 2 of them in solitary confinement. Two years after being released he committed suicide.
“Over the past decade, research on adolescent brain development and on recidivism have confirmed the moral truth that kids should be treated like kids. This is a critical step towards protecting 16- and 17-year-olds from some of the most devastating effects of adult prosecution and incarceration,” said Laurie Parise, Executive Director of Youth Represent.
Raise The Age will also make it so that the Youthful Offender status is expanded to include youths under 18-years-old so they can get their criminal records sealed or expunged without having the stigma of being labeled as a “criminal” for the rest of their lives.
The measure will make it so that 16- and 17-year-olds accused of misdemeanors, will have their cases handled by Family Court. Non-violent felony cases will start in Criminal Court and then move on to a new section in the criminal justice system known as “youth part” in which judges trained in Family Court law will hear those cases.
However, teens arrested for a violent felony, which make up about 1 percent of the more than 20,000 juvenile charges in New York per year,could be diverted from youth part if they pass a three-part test: whether the victim sustained significant physical injury, whether the accused used a weapon, and whether the perpetrator engaged in criminal sexual conduct.
“This year’s passage of Raise the Age comes with an especially important aspect that will ensure that 16- and 17-year-olds are removed from Rikers Island as quickly as possible. Though there have been reforms there is no question that the best course of action to protect young vulnerable New Yorkers is to keep them off Rikers Island. By moving them into appropriate facilities we can focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration,” said Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx).
“Since I first started advocating for Raise the Age in 2011 it has been far too long that youthful offenders found themselves in the adult criminal justice system. It is our responsibility to give our youth a fighting chance for their future, and this starts with removing 16- and 17-year-olds from Rikers Island as quickly as possible. In this year’s budget, we took the first steps in ensuring we change lives for the better and I will continue to advocate for reforms that do so,” said Savino (D-Coney Island, Staten Island).
