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Concerns about increasing youth detention and reduction in diversion programs
3:32:53
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120 sec
Council Member Lincoln Restler expresses concern about the significant increase in youth detention, rising from 119 to 270 since FY2021. He highlights the reduction in diversion programs and questions the Law Department's role in prosecuting these cases.
- Restler notes that kids are sleeping in classrooms instead of proper facilities.
- He points out that the percentage of youth successfully referred to diversion programs has dropped to 77% from nearly 90% pre-pandemic.
- Restler questions the increase in cases referred to the Law Department that were prosecuted, rising from 24% to 38%.
Lincoln Restler
3:32:53
Juvenile justice, which I appreciate you referencing, madam court counsel, in your testimony.
3:32:58
I'm very concerned about the reality that we've seen the number of youth in detention, you know, of kids in jail increase from 119 to 270 since f y twenty one.
3:33:08
And it just keeps going up and up and up under the Adams administration.
3:33:12
Kids are sleeping in classrooms instead of kids are sleeping in classrooms, which is just wrong.
3:33:19
And, you know, instead of and we've seen the Department of Probation in particular slash the diversion programs, evidence based diversion programs that could have provided better opportunities for those young people.
3:33:32
I know the law department has a limited role here, but you do have a role and I'm hopeful the law department can help us do more to keep kids out of jail.
3:33:41
So law department serves as the prosecutor in these cases, in many of these cases that potentially lead to kids getting placed in jail.
3:33:48
I'd like to focus on the prosecutorial discretion and what is a result of deliberate policy choices by the Adams administration.
3:33:56
So the PMMR showed that the youth arrests for major felonies increased another 16% during the first four months of this year.
3:34:04
It's on track to be more than double the number of arrests since FY '20 '1.
3:34:09
Meanwhile the percent of youth successfully referred to diversion programs dropped again this year down to seventy seven percent.
3:34:18
It used to be close to ninety percent pre pandemic.
3:34:23
A lot of data there, but the percent of cases referred to the law department that were prosecuted increased to thirty eight percent, up from twenty four percent in the PMMR last year.
3:34:35
What drove that increase?
3:34:37
And does the lack of available diversion programs have an impact in your ability to have judges, you know, place people in specific credible alternative approaches, in specific credible alternative programs?