Onondaga County

Nearly a year after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Raise the Age legislation moving 16- and 17-year-olds out of the adult justice system,  state government officials and youth advocates say conditions are significantly improving for teens in trouble with the law.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Raise the Age (RTA) reform law was intended to overhaul the justice system for 16- and 17-year-olds charged with crimes — mandating a new, rehabilitation-focused network of detention facilities, court rooms and punishments for teens who are arrested.

When Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed the juvenile justice law known as “Raise the Age” in April 2017, advocates celebrated that New York would finally catch up to other states moving 16- and 17-year-olds out of adult courts and lockups.

Five years ago, the leaders of Onondaga County, New York — home to nearly half a million people, the city of Syracuse, and hills, lakes, rivers — saw an opportunity. The number of children placed in foster care had dropped to a little more than 200 from the nearly 900 placed in the system in the late 1990s.