Establishes the youth justice innovation fund to make funds available to community-based organizations for services and programs with the purpose of youth development and preventing youth arrest and incarceration.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8491
SPONSOR: Hevesi TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to establishing the
youth justice innovation fund
PURPOSE:
To create a Youth Justice Innovation Fund, administered by the division
of criminal justice services and distributed to community-based organ-
izations to be expended for services and programs with the purpose of
youth development and preventing youth arrest and incarceration, includ-
ing, but not limited to, those providing violence-prevention services;
alternative to detention, placement and incarceration programs for youth
and reentry, education, and employment training and placement programs
for youth though age twenty-five. Such funding shall supplement and not
supplant existing support for local probation services under the "Raise
the Age" law.
SUMMARY:
Section 1. Amends the state finance law by adding a new section 89-gg,
to establish the Youth Justice Innovation Fund.
Section 2. Sets the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
After the implementation of New York state's Raise the Age law in 2018,
it was pledged that the program providing supervision and treatment
services for at-risk youth would be adequately funded. Despite this
promise, as of March 2024, less than a third of the $1.5 billion appro-
priated for this purpose has been disbursed, leadilig to a backlog of
unresolved family court cases.
This legislation will expedite the disbursement of $50 million in funds
from the annual appropriation of $250 million to community-based organ-
izations that work with yotith who are at risk of, alleged to be, or
adjudicated as juvenile delinquents, juvenile offenders, or adolescent
offenders through age twenty-five. This funding will be specifically
focused on funding services and programs with the purpose of youth
development and preventing youth arrest and incarceration, including,
but not limited to, those providing violence-prevention services; alter-
natives to detention, placement and incarceration programs for youth and
reentry, education, and employment training and placement programs for
youth.
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT:
Providing timely access to resources is especially critical for communi-
ties of color due to the significant racial disparity in arrest, prose-
cution, and incarceration. A 2019 study conducted by the Sentencing
Project found that in New York, juvenile placement rates for Black
youths are more than 5 times higher than those for their white peers.
Moreover, the difference in placement rates between the two racial
groups was found to have only decreased by 2% between 2015 to 2019 leav-
ing a slightly smaller yet still considerable disparity between Black
youth and White youth. Accelerated funding for juvenile programs is
required to address these inequalities through prevention initiatives.
The proposed legislation aims to expedite the allocation of funds to
community organizations to facilitate the full implementation of Raise
the Age programming.
According to a 2017 national report by Georgetown Law's Center on Pover-
ty and Inequity, examining the disparate treatment of Black juvenile
girls by various system actors, Black girls are 2.7 times more likely
than White girls to be referred to juvenile justice, are 1,2 times more
likely to be detained, as well as three times more likely to be removed
from their homes and placed in state custody compared to white girls.
There is an imperative to provide greater aid for juvenile programming,
and through this bill, the distribution of funds will be expedited to
community organizations.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to expenditures
made on and after April 1, 2025.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8491
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 20, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Ways and Means
AN ACT to amend the state finance law, in relation to establishing the
youth justice innovation fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section
2 89-gg to read as follows:
3 § 89-gg. Youth justice innovation fund. 1. A fund to be known as the
4 "youth justice innovation fund" is hereby established in the custody of
5 the state comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and finance.
6 2. The fund shall consist of fifty million dollars transferred to such
7 account pursuant to a plan developed by the director of the budget from
8 funds made available for the purposes of funding services for youth
9 through the age of twenty-five, and any interest earnings which may
10 accrue from the investment of monies in the fund. Nothing contained
11 herein shall prevent the state from receiving grants, gifts or bequests
12 for the purposes of the fund as defined in this section and depositing
13 them into the fund according to law.
14 3. Monies of the fund shall be available to the division of criminal
15 justice services and shall be provided to community-based organizations
16 to be expended for services and programs with the purpose of youth
17 development and preventing youth arrest and incarceration, including,
18 but not limited to, those providing violence-prevention services for
19 youth, alternatives to detention, placement and incarceration programs
20 for youth, and reentry, education, and employment training and placement
21 programs for youth through the age of twenty-five.
22 4. On or before the first day of March of each year, the director of
23 the division of criminal justice services shall provide a written report
24 to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly,
25 the minority leader of the senate, the minority leader of the assembly,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01830-01-5
A. 8491 2
1 the chair of the senate finance committee, the chair of the assembly
2 ways and means committee, the chair of the senate committee on codes,
3 the chair of the assembly committee on codes, the state comptroller, and
4 the public. Such report shall include how the monies of the fund were
5 utilized during the preceding calendar year, and shall include:
6 (a) the amount of money disbursed from the fund and the award process
7 used for such disbursements;
8 (b) recipients of awards from the fund;
9 (c) the amount awarded to each recipient;
10 (d) the purposes for which such awards were granted; and
11 (e) a summary financial plan for such monies which shall include esti-
12 mates of all receipts and all disbursements for the current and succeed-
13 ing fiscal years, along with the actual results from the prior fiscal
14 year.
15 5. Monies shall be payable from the fund on the audit and warrant of
16 the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the director of
17 the division of criminal justice services.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to expend-
19 itures made on and after April 1, 2025.
