Youth, Parents, Advocates, Elected Officials Gather in Support of Critical Legislation to Serve Young New Yorkers

(NEW YORK, NY) – Youth, parents, juvenile justice advocates, elected officials, public defender organizations gathered earlier today to advance a broad vision of youth justice and call for passage of two pieces of critical legislation – the #Right2RemainSilent Act (S.1099/A.1963) and the Youth Justice and Opportunities Act (S.3426/A.4238) – which would provide a developmentally appropriate response to young New Yorkers entangled in the criminal legal system.  

The Speak Out event, a celebration of Youth Justice Action Month, included an open mic where youth leaders including XX spoke about the importance of passing these bills, as well as what youth justice means to them. There were also speeches from advocates including XX and elected officials XX. The event also featured art activities including pumpkin decorating and face painting, games, free books and a live DJ. 

The #Right2RemainSilent legislation, sponsored by New York State Senator Jamaal Bailey and Assembly Member Latoya Joyner, would ensure all young New Yorkers consult with a lawyer before waiving their Miranda rights and being subjected to a custodial police interrogation.

Specifically, this legislation modifies the Family Court Act and Criminal Procedure Law to ensure that a child under age 18 may be interrogated by law enforcement only after the young person has consulted with counsel, thereby ensuring any waiver of their constitutional right to remain silent is genuinely knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. It also requires the police to notify a parent before transporting the child to the precinct when taking a child into custody.   

The Exonerated Five were interrogated as youth and coerced into false confessions in New York City more than 30 years ago.  That same year in Westchester County, Jeffrey Deskovic was also interrogated without counsel at age 16, resulting in a coerced false confession and wrongful conviction, despite exculpating DNA evidence.  In the decades since then, New York State has failed to curb deceptive interrogation tactics used by the police.

Instead, young people, who lack the capacity to fully understand Miranda warnings and fully appreciate the long term consequences of their decisions, continue to be subjected to coercive interrogations by law enforcement.

Video of a New York City Police Department officer violating a young New Yorker’s Miranda rights during a police interrogation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oARbSQaw0uA.

This bill would ensure that all children under 18, including the predominantly Black and Latine youth who are too often the targets of police interrogation, have the benefit of an attorney protecting their right to remain silent. 

Every year, tens of thousands of young people ages 18-25 are arrested each year in NY, nearly all of them Black and Latine. There are over 1,000 young people 25 and under at Rikers today.   Starting on their 18th birthday, young people are charged as adults and face adult sentencing and criminal records, even though a growing consensus in the field of adolescent brain development shows us that young people are still developing and maturing well into their 20’s.

The barriers created by adult convictions and sentencing make it harder for young people to finish school, get good jobs, and find stable housing.  The Youth Justice and Opportunities Act (YJ&O), sponsored by New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, would expand alternatives to incarceration and immediate record sealing for young people age 25 and younger, creating opportunities for release and successful reentry.

Youthful Offender (YO) status provides an opportunity for youth under 19 to receive age appropriate sentences, including diversion and alternatives to incarceration, and have their cases sealed so that they can pursue education, employment, housing, and other opportunities. 

YJ&O would build on New York’s decades-old youthful offender law, which provides an opportunity for youth under 19 to receive age appropriate sentences, including diversion and alternatives to incarceration, and have their cases sealed so that they can pursue education, employment, housing, and other opportunities.  YJ&O would create a new “Young Adult” status to protect New Yorkers ages 19-25, consistent with the scientific consensus that a young person’s decision making capabilities continue to develop into their mid-20s. 

It would also:

• create opportunities for judges to sentence young people to treatment and other programs instead of incarceration;
• expand judicial discretion to grant YO, including the option to grant YO more than once;
• expand the categories of cases where YO status is mandatory rather than discretionary;
• allow judges to waive fees and surcharges for all young people ages 19 – 25; 
• allow young people with a criminal record to petition the court to be retroactively “re-sentenced.”

“Far too often, young people throughout New York State are taken advantage of by law enforcement officers and subjected to excessively harsh penalties at the hands of a criminal justice system that consistently prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation,” said XX. “These bills will prevent such injustices by ensuring that all young New Yorkers, not just those who can afford a private attorney, will have access to an attorney prior to police interrogation.  They will also allow young adults access to alternatives to incarceration and critical record-sealing relief. We implore Albany lawmakers to prioritize these bills and the needs of young people.”

“For far too long, New York has had one of the most punitive criminal legal systems for young people in the country — targeting Black and Brown youth and trapping them in endless cycles of mass incarceration and poverty,” said Jake Martinez, Deputy Director of the Education Policy Center at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “By making it easier for young people to resolve criminal cases and bolstering legal protections for youth interrogated by the police, both the #Right2RemainSilent bill and the Youth Justice and Opportunities Act will expand critical protections for young people captured in New York’s unjust legal system. We must safeguard the futures of New York’s young people — Albany lawmakers need to pass both pieces of legislation this session.”

“New York law is significantly out of line with scientific research and literature regarding the cognitive development of children and adolescents, ” said Justin Choi, Director of Youth Justice Project at Lawyers For Children. Science has conclusively determined that youth are unable to fully appreciate the implications of waiving the right to counsel during the course of a police custodial interrogation. Yet time and time again, our young clients are pressured to quickly make a decision, in an adversarial environment surrounded by law enforcement, without the support, aid and benefit of an attorney, on a subject matter that is not just simply important but is of constitutional magnitude. We urge the legislature to swiftly pass the Right to Remain Silent bill and the Youth Opportunities Act to bring the juvenile justice system a step closer toward becoming a more equitable justice system.”  

“For far too long, our system has focused on punishment instead of prevention, on stigma instead of support, and on fear – largely based on racial bias – instead of facts.  The fact is that young people under the age of 25 require and deserve developmentally appropriate interventions when they stray down the wrong path, not adult prosecution and sentencing,” said Rob DeLeon, Executive Vice President of The Fortune Society.  “Our young people have endless potential when afforded access to the programs and people that we know make a difference.  In celebration of Youth Justice Action Month, and in celebration of our future leaders, I urge everyone to join us in supporting the Youth Justice & Opportunities Act.” 

“This Youth Justice Action Month, New York must invest in young people’s futures,” said Jackie Gosdigian, supervising policy counsel of Brooklyn Defender Services’ Criminal Defense Practice. “As public defenders, we understand how criminal convictions create devastating barriers that have lifelong consequences for young people—from employment discrimination to impeding access to stable housing. The Youth Justice and Opportunities Act and the Right 2 Remain Silent bill would create critical protections for young people ensnared in the criminal legal system, and we urge lawmakers to enact these two bills next session.”

“The Youth Justice and Opportunity Act is a crucial step in protecting the future of our young people ages 19 to 25,” said Nickesha Francis, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Good Shepherds Services. Our youth have rights too! They deserve the right to an attorney before police interrogation. Our young people are not just the future, but they are the present. What is done now will decide their trajectory for the future. New York must act now and make these changes to ensure our emerging adults are not held back by the barriers of criminal conviction, but that they can move forward with every opportunity to succeed and thrive.