Senator Montgomery calls on Senator Flanagan and Senator Klein to do the right thing on Raise the Age and pass progressive reform to change the lives of young people in New York State. 

Assemblyman Lentol and Senator Montgomery's Raise the Age bill (A.4876/S.4157) passed the Assembly and is the Raise the Age proposal supported by the Assembly Speaker, his Assembly Majority, the Senate Democratic Conference as well as the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus. This legislation is also co-sponsored by members of the IDC.

The Senate Democratic Conference have outlined their progressive budget priorities that would assist working families in New York State and enact meaningful Raise the Age reform. Activists, advocates and concerned parents all stood with the Senate Democrats as we unveiled our ‘raise the age’ proposal. These advocate organizations created a list of principles that any bill which seeks to ‘raise the age’ must address, and only the Senate Democratic option achieves all of these goals. The principles that determine if legislation would really ‘raise the age’ or not include:

• Raise the age for nonviolent youth offenders to 18 years old on January 1, 2018;
• Require the State to reimburse 100% of expenses incurred by localities in implementing Raise the Age legislation;
• Ensure that all youth charged as juvenile delinquents are placed in non-institutionalized settings as close to their homes as possible;
• Raise the lowest age of juvenile delinquency from 7 to 12, or 10 in the case of the most serious crimes;
• Codify the prohibition on youth placement in adult correctional facilities;
• Ensure that parents are notified of their 16- and 17-year-old’s arrest, and protect youth's Constitutional rights by requiring parental involvement when waiving Miranda rights;
• Maximize the number of cases that originate in Family Court, and ensure that cases heard in a Youth Part of an adult court are handled by judges trained to handle the intricacies of juvenile offender cases;
• Ensure enhanced investments to diversion services and alternatives to lower incarceration rates; and
• Provide a one-year wait for youth offenders with misdemeanors to have their records sealed and 3 years for felonies

To learn more about the Raise the Age proposals in the Assembly and Senate budget resolutions, read http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/273072/its-one-house-budget-day-read-the-resolutions/ and

To learn more about the Senate Democratic Conference's response to the Senate Majority proposal, read http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2017/03/senate-dems-want-stronger-language-for-raise-the-age/

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