Relates to granting certain individuals youthful offender status or young adult offender status; repealer

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic33

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Zellnor Myrie says this is needed

Modern neuroscience research shows that an adolescent's brain is not fully developed until their mid-twenties. As the United States Supreme Court recognized in Roper v. Simmons, 54.3 U.S. 551 (2005), adolescents have diminished culpability for their actions as compared to adults. "Youth are less mature and have an underdeveloped sense of responsibil- ity; they are more vulnerable to outside pressures, including peer pres- sure, and other negative influences; and their characters are less well formed and still developing." Id. at 569-570. Youthful offender (Y0) status recognizes the differences in legal culpability between adoles- cents and adults and provides a mechanism for different treatment of young offenders when appropriate. Under the existing YO statute, youth benefit from reduced sentencing, including alternatives to incarceration and, because a YO adjudication is sealed to the public, the young person is protected from devastating collateral consequences associated with a permanent criminal record, including deportation, eligibility for student loans, and employment and housing discrimination. All of these protections are appropriate given the age of the offender. Studies reviewed and summarized by the National Conference of St ate Legisla- tures support a conclusion that the neurobiological, psychosocial, and developmental differences between juveniles and adults continue into the late teens and early twenties. A longitudinal study conducted by the chief of Brain Imaging in the Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health concluded that the average human brain is not fully developed until age 25; critically, the frontal lobe, which is responsible for functions such as advanced cognition, controlling impulses and judging consequences, continues to develop into the early twenties. The MacArthur Foundation has conducted psychosocial and developmental research that corroborates the neurobiological findings. New York must update its criminal procedure laws to reflect twenty- first-century understanding of the adolescent brain and criminal culpa- bility. This bill provides judges the discretion to grant the sealing and sentencing protections of youthful offender status for youth until their 26th birthday. The bill is also retroactive, in recognition of the enormous harm that New York State has inflicted on youth - and almost exclusively only youth of color - over the past forty years by saddling youth with a permanent criminal record that stays with them their entire life.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.