AS A HANDSHAKE BUDGET AGREEMENT IS ANNOUNCED, THE CAMPAIGN TO CLOSE RIKERS DECRIES THE MAYOR’S FOCUS ON CRIMINALIZATION OVER CARE

After months of negotiations, New York City Council and the Mayor announced an agreement today on the 2023-2024 City Budget. While funding has been added for supervised release and the Board of Correction, the administration would not concede to increases in funding for supportive housing, restoration of funding for re-entry program providers, or elimination of vacancies among the Department of Correction’s uniformed staff. In response, partners in the Campaign to Close Rikers released the following statement.

Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, said, “The Mayor’s complete hypocrisy in talking about ‘upstream’ solutions while refusing to allocate serious funding for anything but policing and punishment is staggering. NYC jails have killed 22 people on the Mayor’s watch, but he wants to keep money flowing to the corrupt, dysfunctional agency that runs them - choosing to preserve hundreds of uniformed vacancies in their ranks rather than restore vital programs for people returning to their communities or make commonsense investments in the Black and Brown communities he claims to care about. Through the City Council's insistence, some necessary funding was added for alternatives to detention and Board of Correction oversight. But nothing for the proactive and proven solutions that keep people out of the court and jail system to start with - like supportive housing and community based mental health treatment. Going forward, the City Council and other elected leaders must be prepared to use every tool possible to finally end mass incarceration and get Rikers closed, despite the Mayor’s determination to drag our city backward.”

“The agreed upon budget for fiscal year 2024 is a travesty for which the consequences will be felt for years to come. The Mayor continues to undermine efforts to end the devastating humanitarian crisis at Rikers Island, instead investing in an over-bloated DOC budget while cutting critical mental health and reentry services on the island,” said Megan French-Marcelin, Senior Director of NYS Policy at the Legal Action Center. “We know all too well that a tough on crime approach does not work. We also know that the dog whistle rhetoric that the mayor has engaged is just an obfuscation of the profound structural inequalities that have defined this city for decades. Public safety is access to housing and healthcare. It is pathways to gainful employment and adequate social services. It is not the widespread policing of Black and brown communities. And it is certainly not the perpetuation of widespread abuse and negligence in our city jails.”

"This year's budget fails to address the humanitarian crisis on Rikers. Instead of taking action to reduce the jail population and support proven alternatives, the budget invests in a bloated Department of Correction and cuts $17 million in funding for reentry services and supportive programs. With over 20% of people on Rikers dealing with a serious mental illness, the Mayor did not increase funding for the mental health programs and housing services that truly increase public safety," said Jonathan McLean, President & CEO of CASES.

“This budget demonstrates that Mayor Adams has chosen to embrace the failed system of mass incarceration, rather than create true public safety by investing in the things that keep individuals and communities healthy. Instead of addressing the mental health crisis which has resulted in more and more people with significant mental health concerns being funneled into jail, this Administration prefers to pour more taxpayer dollars into the utterly dysfunctional correction department which cannot perform its essential function to keep the people in its custody safe and deliver them to court on time,” said Jennifer J. Parish, director of criminal justice advocacy at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project. “It is unconscionable that the City will continue to keep on its payroll more correction officers than incarcerated people and spend more than $550,000 per year per incarcerated person. The City knows that supportive housing for people with mental health concerns involved in the criminal legal system is effective in keeping people housed and out of the jail and shelter systems, yet it chooses not to fund this alternative. New Yorkers and the City Council should continue to push the Mayor to fund things that work - and defund the Department of Correction, which clearly does not.”

Reverend Wendy Calderon Payne, Executive Director, Urban Youth Alliance (BronxConnect) said, “New York City relies on its elected representatives to use the budget to carve out pathways to success for everyone. The agreed upon budget has fallen short. I want to thank the City Council for showing leadership by fighting for alternatives to incarceration and Board of Correction oversight. Councilmembers have been partners in the fight for incarcerated individuals. I urge them to continue the fight against half measures to reduce the Rikers population. Cutting necessary services while doubling down on the DOC’s budget is insanity. We have seen what works: community-driven alternative justice programs, post-incarceration support, and mental health services.”

Melissa Vergara, member of Freedom Agenda, said, “As the mother of a son with mental health needs who is on Rikers now, I can see what the Mayor cares about, and it definitely isn’t our most vulnerable. For two years there, my son has received no mental health services, and every day there has exposed him to trauma. When he gets out, there won't be any quality mental health services in the community either, because the Mayor would rather line the pockets of law enforcement. Mayor Adams is obsessed with people respecting him, but seems to not realize that people don’t respect him because his actions don’t match his words. This budget is further proof that he’s interested only in being a Mayor for law enforcement, not the people who need our city’s help the most.”

“Decisions made in our city’s budgeting should exclusively reflect the recipe of good outcomes. We’re all familiar with the social elements which predictably lead to positive life outcomes: loving, safe, and stable home environments, adequate resources, and interconnected communities. Rikers Island, on the other hand, is a place in which we warehouse and criminalize trauma, deepening and extending its roots. As Mayor Adams was tasked with major budget decisions, this year, I hoped that he would spend our money building a city that commits to closing the cycles of intergenerational trauma of incarceration. By choosing to preserve DOC’s budget instead of investing real money in community well-being, I see that he’s chosen to instead repeat a failed pattern which ensures many more victims,” said Grace Ortez, member of Freedom Agenda.

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