What's happening
This bill creates a $50 million Youth Justice Innovation Fund to support programs preventing youth arrest and incarceration in New York.
Why it matters
Directs significant funding ($50 million) to community-based organizations. that provide violence prevention, alternatives to detention/incarceration, and reentry, education, and employment programs for youth up to age 25—potentially shifting resources away from punitive systems toward prevention and support.
Expands eligibility for services to young adults up to age 25,. which acknowledges that challenges leading to justice involvement don’t end at 18 and aligns with research on adolescent brain development and effective intervention ages.
Mandates transparent annual reporting on fund allocation and impact,. ensuring public and legislative oversight about who receives funding, how much, for what purposes, and with forward-looking and retrospective fiscal details—this could drive accountability and continuous improvement.
Allows for the fund to grow beyond the initial $50 million. through additional grants, gifts, or bequests, potentially increasing the scale and sustainability of youth justice innovation efforts if outside funders or donors choose to contribute.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Fund Youth Justice Programs
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Print number 643a
- Amend and recommit to finance
- Referred to finance
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to ways and means
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 50–9
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.525
- Referred to finance
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
643--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sens. CLEARE, ADDABBO, BASKIN, BRISPORT, BROUK, FAHY, FERNANDEZ, GONZALEZ, JACKSON, SALAZAR, SERRANO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance -- recommitted to the Committee on Finance in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
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 Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 89-g to read as follows:
§ 89-g. Youth justice innovation fund. 1. A fund to be known as the "youth justice innovation fund" is hereby established in the custody of the state comptroller and the commissioner of taxation and finance.
2. The fund shall consist of fifty million dollars transferred to such account pursuant to a plan developed by the director of the budget from funds made available for the purposes of funding services for youth through the age of twenty-five, and any interest earnings which may accrue from the investment of monies in the fund. Nothing contained herein shall prevent the state from receiving grants, gifts or bequests for the purposes of the fund as defined in this section and depositing them into the fund according to law.
3. Monies of the fund shall be available to the division of criminal justice services and shall be provided to community-based organizations to be expended for 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 for youth, alternatives to detention, placement and incarceration programs
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01830-02-6
for youth, and reentry, education, and employment training and placement programs for youth through the age of twenty-five.
4. On or before the first day of March of each year, the director of the division of criminal justice services shall provide a written report to the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate, the minority leader of the assembly, the chair of the senate finance committee, the chair of the assembly ways and means committee, the chair of the senate committee on codes, the chair of the assembly committee on codes, the state comptroller, and the public. Such report shall include how the monies of the fund were utilized during the preceding calendar year, and shall include:
(a) the amount of money disbursed from the fund and the award process used for such disbursements;
(b) recipients of awards from the fund;
(c) the amount awarded to each recipient;
(d) the purposes for which such awards were granted; and
(e) a summary financial plan for such monies which shall include estimates of all receipts and all disbursements for the current and succeeding fiscal years, along with the actual results from the prior fiscal year.
5. Monies shall be payable from the fund on the audit and warrant of the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the director of the division of criminal justice services.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to expenditures made on and after April 1, 2026.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
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.
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, leading 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 organizations that work with youth 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; alternatives 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 Poverty 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, 2026.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.