The juvenile justice system in New York is broken and failing thanks to Raise the Age — a 2018 law that sends most teen criminal defendants to Family Court and doesn’t punish 16- and 17-year-olds who possess loaded firearms.
“We already have 15 juveniles murdered this year by a gun. I’m talking about being murdered by a gunshot. It wasn’t even close in prior years,” lamented NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri to The Post.
But it’s not just gun crimes: cops are seeing juveniles — some as young as 12 — commit five, six, seven robberies.
- A 14-year-old arrested two dozen times for robbery, grand larceny and possession of stolen property in less than two years remains on the street
- A 12-year-old busted six times, including for weapons possession, also roams the streets
- Another underaged thug, 17, has nine arrests on his record, including for three gunpoint robberies
- One migrant teen terror’s rap sheet includes nearly a dozen busts this year on a slew of robbery and assault charges
The average age at which junior thugs pick up an illegal gun has dropped from 16 or 17 to just 12 or 13 — and the number of adolescent inmates booked on murder charges jumped from seven in April 2018 to more than 230 in May 2023.
Ever since Raise the Age took effect, youth gun violence has soared; tougher older teens now populate New York City’s ill-prepared juvenile facilities.
Last month, a city Department of Investigation report found the city’s two juvenile-detention centers had become overrun madhouses where the worst teen inmates rule; reforms instituted in response to the DOI investigation have reduced the worst outrages but not ended them.
The “milk and cookies” approach by Family Court isn’t working and it certainly isn’t saving lives touched by gun violence.
And as juvenile shooters have killed 15 other teens, the city’s lawmakers have yet to respond to a crisis slamming mainly the black and Hispanic communities.
And the state lawmakers chiefly responsible for the carnage — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins — were re-elected this month.
Heastie, Stewart-Cousins and their colleagues refuse to accept that teen thugs who commit serious felonies and carry guns need to face serious consequences.
Nor will feckless Gov. Hochul challenge the Legislature to join her in rectifying the out-of-control juvenile justice mess.
The so-called adults are failing the kids.
