ALBANY, NY (May 6, 2021) – Today, Members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus met with young people, advocates and experts from across New York to discuss the urgent need for legislative reform in our youth justice and mental health systems. We are committed to passing legislation this session that confronts the criminalization of childhood, builds mental health supports for children and families in crisis, and expands the protections of adolescence for more young people who have contact with the criminal legal system. We believe that these reforms are necessary to advance racial equity and economic justice in New York’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

This package of legislation is a first step in a longer-term fight for youth justice in New York. We are also committed to the proposals for further reform raised by young people and their allies, bringing New York into alignment with best-practices by expanding youthful offender status to 25, closing more youth prisons to divest from incarceration of children, and reinvesting in community-based alternatives that promote youth success and community safety.

“Treating children as adults in the criminal justice system is short-sighted and ineffective,” stated Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, Chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus. “Now is the time to finally end the harmful and counterproductive policy of subjecting juveniles to the harsh penalties of the adult criminal justice system. The Caucus is prepared to push legislation that increases investments in the front-end as well as keeping our youth in their communities rather than incarceration.”

“Our current system for supporting community members in crisis is broken, and it is clear that we need transformative change to save lives,” said Senator Samra Brouk. “We need to ensure a safer future for young New Yorkers by protecting them from the use of chemical irritants and establishing a Black Youth Suicide prevention task force. We must provide long overdue resources to people who need them the most -- like Daniel Prude, who should still be alive today. As the Chair of the Mental Health Committee, it is incumbent upon me to work to improve the mental health and safety of our communities. This package of bills is an important first step in doing that.”

“The theft of innocence from Black children is too common for comfort. Our youth are brutalized and criminalized daily and often see little to no justice,” stated Assemblyman Demond Meeks. “When combating police brutality, we must be intentional about including our youth in written policy and legislation that addresses the extreme levels of violence and trauma they face at the hands of law enforcement. Childhood trauma has long-term impacts on one’s mental health and their ability to navigate life and community relationships. You cannot reverse trauma; you can only alleviate the harm. Our approach to youth justice must involve restorative justice practices, practices of harm reduction, and the empowering knowledge of what types of treatment they do and do not deserve. That is why we proposed bill A5449. This piece of legislation will ban the use of chemical irritants on minors by police officers, any child under the age 18.Lack of adequate policies, supervision, and accountability systems contributes to the over-reliance on physical force and chemical agents. This, coupled with our society’s disposition on adultifying Black and Brown children, leads to the compromise of children’s mental health, an underdeveloped ability for conflict navigation, and the inability to navigate personal and community relationships. I stand with the BPHA Caucus today to make it clear that our children deserve better and that we demand better for them. Together we must break the cycle and protect our children. This legislation is just one step in the right direction.”

“I am a strong advocate for our young people. I believe many of our youths have been unfairly targeted in this racist, capitalist system,” said Assemblyman Charles Barron. “Our young people need programs that will help them to obtain skills that can possibly lead them to owning their own businesses or doing apprenticeships, etc. Many of our young people have suffered because of poverty, lack of adequate healthcare and poor living conditions. Our youths need good paying jobs!”

Legislative Package:

1.Daniel’s Law: Establish State and Regional Councils and Response Units for Mental Health Emergencies | Named to honor Daniel Prude, who was killed by Rochester police during a mental health crisis in March 2020, A4697 (Bronson) / S4814 (Brouk) would create councils charged with ensuring the most appropriate treatment and response to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, and increase effective services that could minimize the number of people who experience such crises. The state council would have the power to amend or enact new rules and regulations establishing minimum standards for mental health, including emergency crisis response. Regional councils would develop local policies and procedures to effectuate necessary reforms to establish mental health response units that do not rely on police.
2.Legislation to Prohibit the Use of Chemical Agents by Police Against Minors | Introduced a few days after the most recent incident in Rochester where a 9 year old girl was pepper-sprayed, S4002 (Brouk) / A5449A (Meeks) would prohibit the use of chemical agents by police against children.

3.Legislation to Establish a Black Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force | This bill, S3408 (Brouk) / A1716 (Jean-Pierre) would examine, evaluate and determine how to improve mental health and suicide prevention for New York's Black children. In New York, Black and Latinx children have the highest rates of adolescent suicide attempts, and suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among youth 15 to 19 in the State. Over half of children in New York with a mental or behavioral condition did not receive treatment when they needed it.

4.Legislation to End the Arrest and Prosecution of Children Under 12 as Juvenile Delinquents | This bill, S4051 (Bailey) / A4982 (Hevesi) would end the arrest and prosecution of children as young as 7 years old, and instead, provide linkages to local community-based services through existing child welfare and behavioral health systems. The majority of children who have contact with the justice system have significant mental health needs. The juvenile justice system serves as a system for the delivery of mental health services for vulnerable youth whose families lack access those services in their communities. The youngest children that police arrest are significantly more likely to be children of color. This bill permits communities to wrap children and families in the services they need without the trauma of arrest and family court processing.

5.Legislation to Expand Youthful Offender Protections | This bill, S282 (Myrie) / A6769 (Hyndman) permits people who were eligible but who did not receive a youthful offender adjudication by the sentencing court to apply for a new determination after at least five years have passed since the imposition of the sentence, or at least five years after the individual's latest release from incarceration.Relieving the civil consequences of a conviction will allow many young people, particularly young people of color, to meaningfully join the workforce and reach their full potential as contributing members of our communities.

6.Legislation to Protect Children in Police Interrogation | This bill, A5891 (Joyner) / S2800 (Bailey) defines keys terms in the current law and provides additional safeguards to protect the Constitutional rights of children. The amendment defines when it is necessary to interrogate a youth and when the police must contact the youth’s parent or guardian, and requires a youth subjected to custodial interrogation first consult an attorney. The remedy for violation of the law would be suppression of any statement taken. The proposed revisions effect Article Three of the Family Court Act as well as the corresponding areas of Article Seven of the Family Court Act and the Criminal Procedure Law addressing youth under 18 years old. The effect is to protect youth who may be subject to delinquency or Persons in Need of Supervision (PINS) proceedings in family court, or adult prosecution in criminal court.

7.Legal assistance to justice-involved youth | This bill, A.2541 (Barron) / S.4665 (Parker), provides legal assistance to youth ordered by the court into the custody of the office of children and family services and placed or committed to a state operated juvenile detention center

8.Employment of mental health professionals by school districts | This bill, S.1969 (Jackson) / A.5019 (Gonzalez-Rojas), would ensure that all elementary, intermediate, middle, junior and senior high schools throughout New York State have a full-time licensed social worker and a full-time licensed psychologist on staff to meet the needs of their students.

The pepper-spraying and handcuffing of a 9-year-old Black girl suffering a mental health crisis by police in Rochester, New York has become national news. As the Daily News said in a recent editorial, “[w]hen a 9-year-old is cuffed and casually pepper-sprayed, it must be a clarion call for change. Mental health first responders can no longer be afterthoughts. This is no longer about pilot programs or experiments. Put them at the center of our response to people in crisis. Enough. Enough. Enough.”

New York State has the opportunity to advance a package of legislation that would limit police contact with children in crisis, protect them from pepper spray and chemical agents, increase access to rapid response mental health services and community-based supports, and stop unnecessary court-involvement. We must act now.