Decision to cut community providers at Rikers Island is shortsighted and dangerous

The city of New York is about to embark on a shortsighted, misguided and dangerous path––one that could be remedied if it reverses course and does not sever vital lifelines that put incarcerated New Yorkers on the path to positive change.

The Department of Correction (DOC) recently notified providers that it will terminate all community-based provider jail-based service contracts effective at the end of next week. While this decision likely was not made lightly or haphazardly, it will turn back the clock to a time when people cycled through the criminal justice system without sorely needed resources.

We understand that the city needs to get its budget under control, but cost-cutting decisions should not put our most vulnerable, marginalized communities at risk. There is a longstanding history lesson that I’m afraid the DOC will repeat, and our elected leaders need to step up to reverse this ill-timed and harmful action.

New Yorkers remember what our city looked and felt like when we had 22,000 people detained in city jails, and over 100,000 people cycling through our courts and local precincts. We released people from jail without access to services, housing, drug and mental health treatment, and discharge planning, and that resulted in devastated communities, individual and family trauma, and generational damage.

But this changed when elected officials and jail administrators collaborated and invested in jail-based services, with a connection to community care to address the unsustainable, devastating path we had taken. They recognized that the DOC’s expertise wasn’t in being a service provider, so partnerships––fueled by budget allotments––were forged with community providers to engage with people in custody, and provide a range of services to support their transition to life after incarceration.

The result: we witnessed the number of people detained and incarcerated in the city significantly decline, communities become safer, and a smaller footprint of mass incarceration.

As the former first deputy commissioner of programs and operations at the DOC, I know that the DOC is wrong to insist it will pick up these services. That is wishful thinking at best. It truly underestimates the totality of the work that goes on every day by community providers.  Our experience during COVID speaks volumes about why this approach will not work.

Amid massive staff absences, we attempted to restructure the work responsibilities of some of the DOC’s non-uniformed staff to step in as community-based organizations were not able to visit due to the pandemic. The workforce, though, resisted under the premise that the new functions were outside of their contractual responsibilities. So, leadership called community providers back, even to perform functions such as handing out toiletries, providing in-unit recreation, and even offering haircuts.

The city’s misguided decision also isn’t fiscally smart. The $17 million in cuts represent .015% of the DOC’s total budget.  Instead, the DOC could shift some funds from its personnel budget––which represents 87% of its costs––and use those funds to continue contracting with community service providers. Remember, many of these positions are unfilled at present, so the funds are there.

We must not return to a time when our elected and appointed officials lay at the feet of our most vulnerable people the full and unchallenged burden of carrying budget cuts that will cause damage in the short term and generational damage and trauma for decades to come.

We all must lean in and determine how to better manage our resources so that we live up to the words of  the City Charter’s preamble, “We strive to be a city where the value, talents, and contributions of every New Yorker are recognized and embraced, and where equity and inclusiveness, community empowerment, accessibility, and opportunity for every New Yorker are the unwavering standards to which we are held accountable in all aspects of governance, business, and service delivery.  We endeavor to ensure that every person who resides in New York city has the opportunity to thrive…”

Stanley Richards is deputy chief executive officer of the Fortune Society.