We are criminal justice and immigration justice advocates, directly impacted people, legal service providers, and faith leaders who stand united in the belief that this is a critical moment in our country’s history, one that requires our state’s leaders to have moral clarity and take unequivocal action.
In light of the recent incident in Rochester where a 9 year old girl experienced a mental health crisis and was physically restrained with handcuffs and pepper sprayed by police, we are confronted by the failure of our response to children in mental health crisis and the criminalization of Black children in New York.
The precarity of Black children’s lives, the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic in their communities, and the events in Rochester make it clear that we need legislation to establish a Black Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force to evaluate and improve mental health supports for New York’s Black children.
