Save youngsters from prison; save lives & money

The summer after I graduated college, I got a phone call that changed my life. It was my mom. And she told me my 16-year-old brother had been arrested on Long Island. Our family quickly closed ranks. I dropped everything and moved back home.

In situations like that, you look for hope. And mine was that my little brother was still so young. Yes, he had made mistakes, but he was a good person with a whole life ahead of him. Surely, others would see that, too.

We were in disbelief when he was charged as an adult, then tried and sentenced to nearly a decade in prison.

I started caring about juvenile justice reform visiting my brother in a string of upstate prisons. It felt unjust to me that he and so many kids like him got swept up in a system that never really saw them or any other path for their lives besides incarceration.

The world has changed a lot since the 1990s. I was part of the movement that helped Raise the Age so others like my brother wouldn’t be tried as adults. But now I’m worried the progress we’ve made for kids like my brother is unraveling.

The city has announced major cuts to Alternative to Incarceration programs, including The New York Foundling’s evidence-based Families Rising program. The proposed cuts — which unlike millions of dollars that have been restored to other programs in recent weeks — jeopardizes our chance to set young lives straight.

But even from a narrow budget lens, these cuts are painful. We estimate that in the last fiscal year alone, Families Rising’s $1.5 million city-funded budget saved more than $9 million in taxpayer funds.

Families Rising serves New Yorkers aged 13 to 27 who are charged with crimes in New York’s adult court system. Since it launched in 2012, the program has helped more than 500 teenagers and young adults in the five boroughs, 95% of whom completed the program successfully.

Among them was Kareem, who was 17 and failing out of school when he was arrested twice with a gun. Facing years in state prison and with a referral from the New York State judge overseeing his criminal case, Kareem and his family opted into Families Rising in 2023.

Today, Kareem is in college on a full scholarship. He has his life back; his family is whole and the trauma of prison — to say nothing of the enormous expense of his incarceration — was averted.

I wish this kind of program had been available to my brother — and I want it to be available to all young men and women willing to try to right their lives.

The need is great. So far in fiscal year 2024, the courts have referred 45 young people to Families Rising. Because our staff is already stretched so thin, nine of them were left without the support that we and the court believe they deserve.

The Foundling’s Families Rising’s exceptional clinical staff offer high-quality, evidence-based Functional Family Therapy to young people and their families as an alternative to incarceration. While more young people in jail will be put in harm’s way, the jobs of our skilled staff, who could earn more money elsewhere, are also on the line.

In addition to historically high rates of treatment completion, Families Rising has demonstrated a significant impact on helping participants with viable alternatives that help them avoid incarceration and a criminal record, complete school or remain employed, and avoid re-arrest.

The Foundling and several other Alternative to Incarceration and re-entry programs have been told to expect $7 million in cuts in the coming fiscal year, which starts on July 1, and $9 million the following fiscal year. For every $100,000 of funding lost, we estimate that 16 young people won’t receive services.

I spent three years as the director of the New York City Office of Management and Budget during the last mayoral administration. I know firsthand there are many ways to approach balancing the city’s budget. One is to strike budget lines on a spreadsheet, but the best way is to recognize the real value — and dollars saved — of programs over time. Alternative to Incarceration programs change lives and come with immediate and longer-term benefits, among them money saved.

I urge the mayor to restore these cuts, for the sake of our young people — and the city’s budget.

Hartzog is the CEO of The New York Foundling and is the former director of New York City’s Office of Management and Budget. Note: Kareem’s name has been changed to maintain confidentiality.