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N.Y. FCT Law § 162-A

This is the official text of N.Y. FCT Law § 162-A, part of New York’s FCT Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "FCT Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Use of restraints on children in courtrooms

Official statutory text

§ 162-a. Use of restraints on children in courtrooms. (a) Use of\nrestraints. Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b) of this\nsection, restraints on children under the age of twenty-one, including,\nbut not limited to, handcuffs, chains, shackles, irons or straitjackets,\nare prohibited in the courtroom.\n (b) Exception. Permissible physical restraint consisting of handcuffs\nor footcuffs that shall not be joined to each other may be used in the\ncourtroom during a proceeding before the court only if the court\ndetermines on the record, after providing the child with an opportunity\nto be heard, why such restraint is the least restrictive alternative\nnecessary to prevent:\n (1) physical injury to the child or another person by the child;\n (2) physically disruptive courtroom behavior by the child, as\nevidenced by a recent history of behavior that presented a substantial\nrisk of physical harm to the child or another person, where such\nbehavior indicates a substantial likelihood of current physically\ndisruptive courtroom behavior by the child; or\n (3) flight from the courtroom by the child, as evidenced by a recent\nhistory of absconding from the court.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.