Statement from the Raise the Age-NY Campaign Assembly and Senate One House Budget Bills for State Fiscal Year 2018-2019

Released March 19, 2018

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Elysia Murphy, (212) 673-1800 x18, emurphy@cccnewyork.org

In response to the release of the Assembly and Senate One House Budget Bills for State Fiscal Year 2018-2019, the Raise the Age-NY Campaign releases the following Statement:

The Raise the Age-NY Campaign continues to be grateful to the Governor and the Legislature for passing legislation to raise the age of criminal responsibility, starting this coming October 2018.  Successful implementation will require that all counties, including New York City, receive state resources for expenses associated with Raise the Age.

We were pleased to see that both the Assembly and the Senate One House Budget Bills modified the Executive proposal to ensure that all counties, including New York City, would be reimbursed for expenses related to raising the age of criminal responsibility.

We were also pleased that the Assembly One House Budget rejected both the proposed cut of all state reimbursement for Close to Home juvenile justice placements in New York City and the cap to child welfare services reimbursement in New York City.  Maintaining state commitment to the children, youth and families in New York City is critical to the safety and well-being of children and to successful implementation of the raise the age legislation.

On the other hand, the Campaign was disappointed that the Senate One House bill failed to reject the proposals to cap and cut state reimbursement for child welfare services in New York City and eliminate all state funding for Close to Home.  We were pleased to see while the Senate Majority accepted these proposals with prejudice, the Senate clearly has strong reservations about these proposals saying in their resolution, “The Senate expresses concern over the impact these actions will have on New York City’s ability to provide these services and urges the Executive, in the strongest terms, to reconsider these misguided actions.”

The Raise the Age-NY is similarly concerned and urges the Executive and the Legislature to ensure the Adopted Budget rejects these dangerous cuts.

Finally, both the Assembly and the Senate One House bills rejected the proposal to expedite the State’s ability to close the Ella McQueen center in Brooklyn, which is currently used for short-term assessments of youth who reside outside New York City who will be placed in upstate state-run juvenile placement facilities.  We urge the Legislature to reconsider this proposal so that upstate youth are not needlessly transported back and forth to Brooklyn and so that New York City can have access to this facility to assist with implementing Raise the Age.