Senate Bill S6326

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6326

SPONSOR: SCARCELLA-SPANTON
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to proceedings
involving adolescent offenders and the possession or use of weapons

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this bill is to clarify what may constitute an extraor-
dinary circumstance with regard to court motions to remove an action in
youth part to family court, when an adolescent offender is charged with
a crime that involved the use, possession or displaying of a firearm,
shotgun, rifle or other deadly weapon.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill amends Section 722.10 of the criminal procedure
law by adding a new subdivision 3 to provide that notwithstanding any
other law, justices presiding in youth part, along with all other
parties in an action that is before the youth part, shall have access to
              

all family court records related to juvenile delinquency proceedings of
the defendant prior to arraignment.

Section 2 of the bill amends Criminal Procedure Law Subsection 722.23,
subdivision 1, paragraph (d), to provide that when an adolescent in
youth part is charged with a nonviolent crime that involved a firearm,
shotgun, rifle or other deadly weapon, that it may be considered an
extraordinary circumstance by which a judge may make a motion to prevent
the transfer of the action to family court. This section also clarifies.
that the justice may also consider prior conviction of an offense
involving the illegal use, possession or display of a firearm, shotgun,
rifle, or other deadly weapon.

Section 3 of the bill amends Criminal Procedure Law Section 722.23,
subdivision 2, paragraph (c) (ii) to provide that if a defendant was
engaged in the use, possession and display of a firearm, shotgun, rifle
or deadly weapon during the furtherance of a violent offense they are
charged with, the case shall not be transferred to family court.

Section 4 provides for an immediate effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This bill is necessary to provide clarification in state criminal proce-
dure law as it relates to adjudication of Adolescent Offenders for seri-
ous crimes. Alarmingly, cases of youth-on-youth gun violence and crimes
with guns by youths have risen since the 2017 laws overhauling the juve-
nile justice statutes in New York took effect.

The intention of the newly created Youth Part court under the 2017 law
changes is to adjudicate the most serious of adolescent offenses. Gun
violence and gun-involved crimes are inarguably among the most serious
crime types that exist and that plague our youth.

Unfortunately, there are gaps in the new laws and consequently there has
been rising youth, gun, and gang violence in many areas of the state.

This bill addresses one major gap in the law to allow justices in Youth
Part to be able to view the entire picture of an adolescent defendant's
case, including dangerousness based on criminal history to help them
better make a determination and risk assessment of whether its transfer
to Family Court is most appropriate.

A second major gap in the revised 2017 statute is that the criminal
justice system was left without clear guidance regarding what factors
may constitute "extraordinary circumstances" of a case. Under the new
law, when "extraordinary circumstances" exist in non-violent cases,
judges may make a motion to retain the case in Youth Part rather than
transfer to Family Court. Nevertheless, due to lack of clarity in the
statute about "extraordinary circumstances", including whether the fact
that a gun was involved in the crime, judges have been constrained to
transfer extremely serious gun-involved cases to Family Court, at times
even citing lack of clear guidance in the "extraordinary circumstance"
component of the new law.

Under this bill if the Adolescent Offender's non-violent crime involved
a gun, or if a judge where to find in a defendant's history that they
have a previous conviction of a serious crime involving a gun, the judge
would have the ability to move to keep the case in Youth Part, based on
it being an "extraordinary circumstance." The judge still may opt to
transfer the youth's case to Family Court.

A third major gap in the new law exists when guns are used or displayed
in violent crimes. Current law provides that if a violent felony offense
is charged where a gun is "displayed" then that case is automatically
adjudicated in Youth Part. However, when a gun is "possessed" or other-
wise "used" in the offense, it is not considered a violent offense to be
adjudicated in Youth Part. For example, a gun may be present on a
person's body, felt by the victim, and the offender even may have
informed the victim of its presence or threatened them with its use
during the act of the crime, but that case does not automatically stay
in Youth Part. This bill would ensure that such gun crime cases would
stay in Youth Part due to their violent nature.

While there has been only one comprehensive review of the new laws in
2020 by a now disbanded Task Force on its implementation, agencies and
local governments across the state are reporting that youth violence
with guns actually has risen, instead of being reduced since the chang-
es.

A recent Times Union news article reported alarming statistics from
their data review on the impacts of the statutory changes. For example,
they reported after their own data analysis and after reviewing testimo-
ny provided at a legislative hearing, that "in Albany County, since
2018, nearly 60 % of cases involving adolescent and juvenile offenders
are violent offenses, and nearly half of those involve guns."

Their report also references data shared by the NYPD to the Legislature
that indicated that "Since 2017 the number of juvenile shooting victims
in NYC has doubled and the number of juveniles identified as shooters
has increased about 156 %." NYPD officials, in their testimony reported
data showing there has been a large increase in NYC in youth gun crimes,
including a "183% increase in offenders under 18 involved in gun crimes
between 2017 and 2022." The same NYPD testimony also indicates there has
been "a sharp increase in firearms possession cases among youth and
(...) last year (2022), 10 percent of NYC shooting victims were under
the age of 18."

NYPD data also shows that "youths arrested for gun possession tripled
from 2017-2021." And that "48% of 16 year old offenders were rearrested
for new crimes, including 27% for violent offenses." Along with that,
the NYPD's data sadly showed that "offenders under 18 arrested for gun
possession and subsequently involved in a shooting within two years of
their arrest for gun possession rose from 6.7% to 23.4% from 2017-2020,
a 39% increase.

Further concerning are reports that violent gangs in New York also are
recruiting increasingly lower-aged youths to carry guns during criminal
acts during gang activity due to the likelihood they will face much
lower repercussions for gun crimes under Family Court processes. These
alarming trends since the new laws took effect need to be reversed.

The overhaul of the adolescent offender statutes in 2017 has not lived
up to its promise of ending youth recidivism and crime reduction. In
fact, the implementation of the new laws has seen some opposite effects
regarding gun-involved youth crimes. Efforts to reduce gun crimes among
youths and in our state, under the new statutes, are made more difficult
due to the gaps that remain in the law. These statutory gaps must be
closed. Otherwise, the intent of the new laws to reduce serious crime
and its impacts among adolescents will not be realized. Therefore, this
bill is necessary to ensure that the goals of the recent changes to
adolescent offender laws to reduce youth violence and recidivism, and
keep the public safer may be reached.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2024; Held in Senate Codes Committee.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.