Senate Bill S7394

2011-2012 Legislative Session

Relates to the age of criminal responsibility

download bill text pdf

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Codes Committee


  • Introduced
    • In Committee Assembly
    • In Committee Senate
    • On Floor Calendar Assembly
    • On Floor Calendar Senate
    • Passed Assembly
    • Passed Senate
  • Delivered to Governor
  • Signed By Governor

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2011-S7394 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:
A10257
Current Committee:
Senate Codes
Law Section:
Criminal Procedure Law
Laws Affected:
Amd §§1.10, 1.20, 30.20, 160.10, 160.20 & 725.00, add Art 155 §§155.00 - 155.20 & Art 722 §§722.00 - 722.60, CP L; amd §§243 & 502, Exec L; amd §212, Judy L; amd §30.00, Pen L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:
2013-2014: S4489, A7553
2015-2016: S5175

2011-S7394 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Relates to the age of criminal responsibility.

2011-S7394 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2011-S7394 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  7394

                            I N  S E N A T E

                               May 7, 2012
                               ___________

Introduced by Sen. SALAND -- (at request of the Office of Court Adminis-
  tration)  --  read  twice  and ordered printed, and when printed to be
  committed to the Committee on Codes

AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, the executive law, the judi-
  ciary law and the penal law,  in  relation  to  the  age  of  criminal
  responsibility

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Legislative findings. The legislature  finds  and  declares
that, each year, approximately 50,000 youths aged 16 and 17 are arrested
in  New York and prosecuted as adults in its criminal courts, overwhelm-
ingly for non-felony offenses. As many studies over the past decade have
shown, however, the adult criminal justice system does  not  effectively
respond to teenage criminal behavior. It is costly and largely ill-suit-
ed to the challenges such crime presents. Accordingly, this measure aims
to provide a distinctly new, more effective response to teenage criminal
behavior.
  Modern  behavioral  neuroscience confirms that the brains of teenagers
are not yet matured; they lack impulse  control  and  can  neither  make
fully-reasoned  judgments  nor weigh the risks and consequences of their
behavior. It is now understood that teenage offenders should be  treated
differently  from  older  criminals  because  their  offenses are not as
"morally reprehensible as that of an adult." Moreover, as  other  states
nationwide  have learned, and as the legislature now recognizes, teenag-
ers are better candidates for rehabilitation and more likely to  benefit
from  alternatives-to-incarceration programs and locally-based services.
Experience in other states  has  shown  that  recidivism  among  teenage
offenders  drops  markedly  when the latter are treated with appropriate
intervention programs and services designed for  teenagers  rather  than
with  adult criminal sanctions. Indeed, where such programs and services
are utilized, all involved can benefit: the affected teenagers, many  of
whom  can  thereby be steered away from a life of crime, and the public,
which, where these programs and services  succeed,  can  be  spared  the
consequences and costs of such a life upon the community.

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

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