 The impact of COVID-19 on youth justcie service providers and the NYC youth they serve. (January 2021)
COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color and people who are incarcerated, including youth involved in the justice system, in detention and placement in NYC. Service providers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic response working with justice-system-involved youth have a keen insight on the impact of this crisis and offer urgent guidance as we begin this new year. This research brief outlines central issues and recommendations that service providers identified in a recent survey conducted by YJRC of 31 service organizations that work with young people who are impacted by the legal system. |
 Policy brief: Evaluating the First Year of Implementation of Raise the Age. (June 2020)
This brief report outlines our preliminary findings of Raise the Age’s first full year. It focuses principally on summarizing public data, but provides crucial and unique detail based on 473 court observations collected from June 1 to September 30, 2019 in New York City.2 Court watchers spent many hours a day, multiple times a week, across many months taking detailed and standardized notes of the proceedings (see “From the Court Watchers” to learn more). In this report we begin by reviewing the youth arrest data, move to a look at youth detention, and conclude by comparing the newly created Youth Part of Adult Court with Family Court. In each of the sections we outline numbers that show signs of a successful implementation as well as areas of concern. |
 Public Defenders on The Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Justice. (January 2020)
The COVID-19 crisis has increased the risks facing youth who are arrested and detained and made navigating the juvenile and adult criminal justice system much harder for young people and their families. As the weather gets warmer and New York City begins the reopening process, we anticipate that an increase in arrests could further exacerbate these problems. Our public defender survey included a question about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the City’s youth justice system, and defenders representing adolescents and young adults have raised significant concerns as well as recommendations for supporting youth through COVID-19. |
