We support the redirection of funds currently spent on incarcerating juveniles to community-based alternatives-to-incarceration for youth. We believe that the $200,000 spent annually to keep just one young person in a youth prison is a waste of public dollars. We believe that the 75\% recidivism rate that comes from locking children up is proof these facilities are not good for public safety. We believe the fact that 86\% of the children in facilities are Black and Latino youth - mostly from low-income urban areas - represents racial and economic injustice. We believe that keeping empty and underutilized facilities open to maintain jobs in rural counties that don't send their own youth to the justice system is economic exploitation. At the same time, we know that community-based alternatives, where kids stay close to home and receive social services and supervision from responsible adults, achieve recidivism rates as low as 8 to 36\% at cost of $5,000 to $15,000 per youth annually. Knowing there are proven ways to turn children's lives around, improve public safety, and reduce government spending, we support the closure of New York State's costly, harmful, and ineffective youth prisons and support the reinvestment of the monies saved back into the communities where the young people live.