Upstate mayors want youth justice funds faster

Three upstate executives are joining the call to get state Raise the Age money out the door to community organizations to keep young people out of the prison system. Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens and Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs have signed on to a letter to state leaders shared exclusively with City & State in support of legislation to create a Youth Justice Innovation Fund, which would more effectively distribute already appropriated funds currently sitting unused.

The state passed the Raise the Age law in 2017, which changed the age of criminal liability from 16 to 18, resulting in fewer teens getting tried for crimes as adults, but more people in the youth justice system. The law came with annual appropriations – now up to $250 million a year – to reimburse localities for the costs associated with implementing the law, including for deferment programs and alternatives to incarceration initiatives. All told, the state has set aside over $1.7 billion to cover those costs. But municipalities need to spend the money up front first and apply for reimbursement. And according to a report from the state comptroller’s office last year, only about $660 million has actually gone out the door as of the end of the 2025 state fiscal year.

First introduced last year, the Youth Justice Innovation Fund bill would take $50 million from the annual $250 million in Raise of Age funding, which will appear in the fiscal year 2027 state budget and allow it to flow directly to community groups that focus on helping young people up to age 25 stay out of the criminal justice system. 

“Our cities are home to first-rate organizations that support young people but that lack the funds to provide robust services to the hardest to reach young people with the highest needs,” the mayors wrote in their letter. In addition to saying the Youth Justice Innovation Fund would allow communities like theirs to be proactive in reducing arrests among young people rather than remaining reactive, the mayors called on lawmakers to include the full $50 million in funding for the program in the final state budget “in order to deliver critical, cost-effective services to youth while making all of our cities safer.”

The state Senate approved the legislation to create the fund last year, but it failed in the Assembly. This year, the upper chamber included the proposal in their one-house budget. The Assembly did not include it, but did propose allocating $30 million for the kinds of community-based organizations the Youth Justice Innovation Fund would support.