RTA created a new classification for 16 and 17-year-olds charged with felonies, called Adolescent Offender (AO). Sex offenses, violent felonies, and other serious felonies are not eligible to be sealed. The RTA legislation also contains a sealing section that makes it possible for some people who have been crime-free for 10 years to apply to seal up to two of their criminal convictions. The felonies may be sent to Family Court, but the misdemeanor under the Vehicle and Traffic Law will either stay in the Youth Part or be sent to the local criminal court. If the AO is charged with a felony under the Penal Law or the Vehicle and Traffic Law, and also charged with a misdemeanor under the Vehicle and Traffic Law, all the charges may go to the Youth Part together. AOs whose cases are removed from the Youth Part in Supreme or County Court to Family Court, will then be considered Juvenile Delinquents.
Scientific research has shown that prosecuting and placing children in the adult criminal justice system does not work. RTA changed the age of criminal responsibility to: Prior to RTA, New York was one of two remaining states to hold 16 year-olds criminally responsible. New York’s Raise the Age (RTA) legislation changed the age that a child can be prosecuted as an adult to 18 years of age in criminal cases in New York State.
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