DIRECTLY IMPACTED PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES URGE MAYOR ADAMS AND CITY COUNCIL TO ADJUST THE 2022 CITY BUDGET AWAY FROM RIKERS AND TOWARD COMMUNITY HEALING & REINVESTMENT
As the Mayor’s office and City Council move into the final weeks of negotiations for the 2022 budget, directly impacted people, advocates, and elected officials called on City Hall to cancel plans to increase the Department of Correction’s uniformed headcount – already at the highest ratio in the nation – and redirect those funds to meet urgent community needs, and expand oversight of the City’s notoriously corrupt and poorly-managed Department of Correction (DOC).
The group’s demands include:
Redirecting funds from wasteful DOC budget increases to supportive housing and other investments to meet community needs like those recommended by the Commission on Community Reinvestment and the Closure of Rikers
Reinstituting a hiring freeze for DOC, instead of adding 578 more guards
Reducing overtime by consolidating operations and closing jails
Increasing the Board of Correction headcount to 1% of DOC headcount
NYC runs the most richly funded and staffed jail system in the country yet delivers the worst results. New York City spent almost 3 times more per incarcerated person than the second most expensive jail system in the country, more than half a million dollars per incarcerated person per year. But they still fail to provide basic services and safety for people in their custody - five people have now tragically died in NYC jails in less than five months since the start of the year.
The Mayor’s Executive Budget proposes increasing DOC’s headcount by 578 officers and increasing DOC’s expense budget by $125M over the FY2022 adopted budget, while cutting funds to other agencies, like the Department of Homeless Services, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Department of Youth and Community Development.
After 150 years of robbing generations of Black, Brown, and poor New Yorkers of their freedom and their human rights, NYC is now on a pathway to close Rikers Island by 2027, in response to the advocacy of people who survived torturous periods of incarceration there, and family members of people detained at Rikers. It comes none too soon, as the humanitarian crisis at Rikers is so bad it’s prompted the federal government to consider intervention. NYC is at a crucial crossroads, and must take the opportunity to advance the plan to close Rikers in this year’s budget cycle, not retreat into reactionary fearmongering and throw money downstream at policing and corrections.
Said Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, “New York City spends the most amount of money staffing its corrections officers and gets the absolute worst results. And those of us trying to work to actually prevent crime have nothing left.”
“We need to divest from the punishment model of the Department of Corrections,” said Anisah Sabur of the HALT Solitary campaign, “and increase funds for community investment including mental health, substance abuse, and housing.”
“In 2021, NYC spent almost 3 times more per incarcerated person than the second most expensive jail system in the country - and what do the taxpayers have to show for it? Rikers is a blight on our city, and both the city and the state have to get serious about closing it down and investing in proven interventions that stop cycles of harm. When redistricting goes into effect, there is a good chance that I will represent the people incarcerated on Rikers. While I work to pass the Treatment Not Jails Act to expand proven diversion programs on the state level, I need my partners in the City Council to pass a budget that prioritizes our neighbors’ urgent need for housing, education, and health care over pre-trial incarceration,” said State Senator Jessica Ramos (D-SD13), sponsor of S2881B on March 23.
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