Annie E. Casey Foundation Funded Research Shows Close to Home is Worth Fighting For
Advocates are fighting to save C2H from budget cuts proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that would eliminate state funding for the program just as Raise the Age legislation – mandating that 16 and 17-year-olds are held in age-appropriate facilities like C2H – takes effect. The Columbia University Justice Lab, which has received funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation to conduct a case study of C2H, convened their March 16 forum months earlier than originally planned in order to share preliminary findings on the program’s results in the midst of the effort to keep it alive.
“You can’t continue to reform like this without funding,” said Marsha Weissman, CEO of the Center for Community Alternatives.
“You can’t hold providers to the best standards if you don’t fund them properly. You can’t work with kids in the best way, without, frankly, money,” said Weissman.
A number of key statistics seem to show that C2H is a contributing factor in improved outcomes for youth involved with the juvenile justice system. New York City has seen a 53 percent decline in youth arrests, a 37 percent decline in youth detention, and a 68 percent decline in out-of-home placements. New York state has seen 41 percent, 31 percent, and 20 percent declines, respectively in the same categories. Direct causality cannot be determined from the data, and other reforms such as the end of stop and frisk certainly contributed as well, however city officials see the program as having a lot of promise….