Clark outlines focus areas and Raise the Age Youth Justice Bureau
Clark says she will focus on youth justice operations, information-sharing challenges, and investment in interventions. She describes Raise the Age and her office's Youth Justice Bureau, which began accepting cases in July 2025 and considers mental health, family history, education, and intervention options.
Today, I will focus on three areas that warrant the Council's attention.
How our youth justice system operates, the information sharing challenges that affect detention safety
and case decision making, along with the need for sustained investment in effective youth interventions.
In 2017, New York's Raise the Age law established a framework for 13 to 17 year olds
charged with serious felony offenses, intending to balance accountability with opportunities for rehabilitation.
To strengthen this work, my office established a Youth Justice Bureau, and with me today is the Chief of the Youth Justice Bureau, Marcel Edouard, and Deputy Chief of the Bureau, Ginger James.
So we established that in March of 2025 and the Bureau began accepting cases this past July.
Before that, the cases were scattered throughout my office, so now I have a concentrated place where those cases are happening.
Assistant District Attorneys with Youth
The Assistant District Attorneys with the Youth Justice Bureau consider mental health, substance use, family history, education, employment, and intervention options when reviewing these cases.
Depending on the facts and circumstances of each case, recommendations can range from a conditional discharge and probation to incarceration.
Our objective is to make informed, individualized decisions that recognize the seriousness of the offense while considering the best available path to accountability and reducing future harm.