Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams’s budget briefing leaves CBOs ambivalent about funding and bail reform

Community-based organizations (CBOs)—including leading gun violence interrupters and reentry nonprofits—were at the table for Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams’s budget briefing on public safety in Inwood last Wednesday, May 3.

“We’re making historic investments to support organizations like [Jackie Rowe-Adams’s Harlem Mothers S.A.V.E.] and to transform public safety,” said Hochul. “Take those challenges and turn them into better days for our communities across the state. Because there’s my firm belief that every single New Yorker deserves to feel safe and to be safe in their communities.”

The Fortune Society’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Stanley Richards called the budget’s $31.4 million for alternatives to incarceration programs and $11.5 million for post-prison reentry services a “moment of celebration.” Increased funding will go toward organizations like the Fortune Society to rebuild lives of justice-impacted New Yorkers after they come home. At the press conference, Richards estimated the nonprofit serves around 10,000 people.

But Richards expressed anxieties to the Amsterdam News over Hochul’s bail reform rollbacks, which held up the same budget after state lawmakers dissented. Ultimately, a concession was made to continue to give judges further discretionary powers to ensure defendants returned to court, while pruning a “dangerousness” standard when determining bail.

“This [funding] is significant in terms of our ability to provide services that help people rebuild their lives, prevent people from getting caught up in the cycle of mass incarceration, and providing tools that allow communities to thrive and create safe communities, so we’re really thankful for this budget,” said Richards. “At the same time, we are cautious and concerned that this budget included language that could result in judges detaining more people and widening the net of who [is] incarcerated.”